Family
by Meg2
Summary: Sookie and Victor's Fae Family History. Follows "Retribution" and "The Weave of Time". You should have read my other stories in sequential order for this one to make sense.... General Spoilers for SVS Books 1-8, Chapter 1 of Book 9
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: The Sookie Stackhouse Series is the creation of Charlaine Harris. Don't sue me Charlaine! I love your books.

A/N- This multi-chapter story follows "Understanding", "Reconciliation" and "The Weave of Time" and "Retribution". If you haven't read them, and in fact if you haven't read my stuff from the first few stories, this one won't make any sense. My stories are a departure from the Sookie Canon. A list of my stories in chronological order is on my author profile.

**Family**

I.

October was coming to a close and I was finally enjoying being back home. The troublesome effects of the fae 'water of life' had finally faded. I'd teased Claudine that she was putting me in grave danger by giving it to me when I lived with a vampire but she seemed to think that it hadn't been all that bad. It made me just burst out laughing that she said she knew Eric was a _trustworthy_ vampire where I was concerned. I told her that I was comforted that _she_ was so sure he wouldn't drain me in some intoxicated lust fest. She replied with seriousness that I really hadn't smelled all _that_ fae. I didn't have enough fairy blood to smell _really_ fae she said. Clearly she had _not_ seen Thalia around me.

In general, though, Claudine seemed much more relaxed these days knowing that she didn't have to worry as much about my safety and welfare. She was pleased with the results of the _uisce beatha_ every time she came to check on me. I was physically stronger than I'd ever been, and I had to admit that even if the three weeks after drinking the stuff had been a bit dicey, Declan was probably right that it was a good thing for me to have occasionally. Enhancing that mere twelve percent of my heritage seemed like a small gain, but I guessed I should be grateful for it. Claudine thought that it would make me more resilient if I had to do anything magical that was stressful. She and Eithne had discussed it, evidently. I told her she was lucky that Eithne was willing to call her the regular way, since I was stuck with scrying as _my_ only option.

I wondered what Eric thought about the fading of the fae aroma but he didn't even seem to care. He only cared that I was home. He seemed so cheerful these days that even Pam couldn't tease him. Things were going well at the bar, all his other businesses were running smoothly. Everything was peaceful. We had plans to go to Nevada in mid-November so I could work for a few days for Felipe, and I was to appear with Pythia in New York the first week of December at a summit of eastern states. I was excited at the idea of going to New York and Eric hadn't been there since the 1920's. But my biggest excitement was that Pythia had also invited us to visit her at her home in the south of France in February. I had applied for a passport. No taking the crossroads for this travel, since I'd not be in Eithne's care. Eric was planning to go with me and said that he thought we should take extra time to see Paris. He was making plans with Zelda but I didn't have a clue what they were. I asked Zelda about it and she said it was none of my business and that I was such a nosy child. When told her I could always read her or Eric she was scandalized and called me a killjoy. I restrained myself.

For the present, I'd been busy in Bon Temps during the day toward the latter part of the month. I was working on a few things in my house there, and visiting with friends and with Jason. The situation with Jason and Crystal remained tenuous. Ava was getting bigger, was walking and babbling was a beautiful but very cranky little girl. Who could blame her? I'd look into her sad little green eyes and see quite the tale. I tried to be supportive with Jason but really thought he should be doing more to take care of Ava. It was a sore topic, however.

I'd visited several times with Sam and worked a bit in Merlotte's a couple of days when he was short-staffed, over Sam's and Eric's objections. Sam really needed the help and the first day I just happened by the bar I found it in chaos. I put on an apron and just started working. Tanya was away because her mom was sick. Of course, Arlene had quit right after the Were revelation. Holly and Betty, the new girl, were just in the weeds. I told Sam that he needed the help and that I'd brook no interference on his part with my giving it to him. Eric knew he'd lost the argument before he even started it. It was just a few hours for several days, anyway. And frankly, it actually felt good to go back and do something I had done for so long and that was just 'normal'. No magic, no strategic planning, no thoughts about supernatural laws, or how to prevent cheating in casinos, or really any thinking beyond keeping people's orders straight. Just rushing around, getting it done. It was a refreshing change of pace, going back and revisiting the past for just a bit.

Working a few days at Merlotte's really drove home to me that most people just don't see what they don't want to see. People who had known me my whole life appeared not to even notice that I was taller, thinner, blonder, and in general, looked different. It was as if there had been no change in their eyes. Andy Bellefleur gave me the once over though, and he noticed something was weird but thought to himself that I'd _always_ been weird. Marrying that vampire had just made me even weird_er_, he thought. Even Jason appeared to be in denial and just told me I was looking really good these days. Meanwhile many of the supes who knew me before and happened on me now just looked at me open-mouthed. Crystal plainly thought that I was just freakier than ever and that it was hard to believe that Jason and I had the same parents. Tanya, who came back from caring for her ill mother, walked around me in circles and asked me what I had done to myself and if it was really me. She even sniffed around me and told me I didn't I smell exactly the same. I guess some hint of fae scent still lingered. A fox would know. Calvin came into the bar one day when I was helping out and shook his head saying that I looked 'out of this world' with a wink. It made me reflect on the fact that even with the vamp and Were revelation, regular people often would just not see what they didn't feel comfortable with. Maybe that was a good thing. It was safer that way, given the reactions most people had to people who were different.

In the short term, I had plans to visit Mississippi. It was a trip for pleasure and a bit of work, albeit for free, of course. Victor had called me about arriving in Jackson the day after Halloween, November 1st. Eric was less than thrilled after realizing he couldn't get away that early. After discussing and half-arguing about the whole thing, Eric was okay with my going ahead alone and he'd just come a day and a half later. He knew that I really wanted to talk to Victor about family, and Victor wanted me to scope a few things out for him.

Victor offered to send a car and driver for me, but I decided I'd just drive myself. It was only a few hours and I was feeling sassy in my new Prius, which I'd bought with some of my money from the Madison summit. It was my first new car ever, and I was so excited about it. It was a pretty shade of light green but it was literally a green car. I was proud to be able to purchase it entirely on my own and looking forward to driving it.

So the day after Fangtasia's Halloween bash (I was an shieldmaiden of Rohan, like Eowyn, but I was sulky after Eric laughed when he saw me holding a sword.) I packed up my car and set off around noon, giving myself plenty of time to get to Jackson. I was quite curious to see what Victor had done with Russell Edgington's compound, which had been large and lavish. Victor had a real sense of style, so I was assuming that he would have made some changes to make it his own. I'd be glad because even though I'd been there several times now, I had bad memories of it because of Lorena and Bill.

In spite of the fact that I'd been kind of annoyed with Victor since Madison, I was looking forward to seeing him. I was annoyed because he'd planned to use me as part of his excuse for taking over Mississippi, ousting Russell, which is a nice way of saying killing him, and having done it all with his former King, Felipe's, assets and resources in Louisiana. Felipe, who had really actually liked Victor, was rather miffed, and pressed charges against him in a vampire court. Victor had cut a last minute deal with Felipe to avoid having the case heard by Pythia. He still didn't know that Felipe and I had talked about the deal and that _I'd_ suggested claiming portions of Mississippi's revenues as Victor's punishment. He was pragmatic enough to accept Felipe's claim of 20% of his revenues for ten years as compensation for having involved Felipe without his knowledge. (Not like Felipe wasn't familiar with the violent takeover idea- the only remaining bad thoughts I had about Felipe had to do with Sophie-Anne's heartless murder when she was injured and unable to defend herself.) It was a good thing they settled because Pythia really didn't like Victor's plan of saying that he killed Russell to protect Eric and me, because I was his cousin. She knew it wasn't really the reason. You really can't hope to trick an Oracle. Victor just _wanted_ to take over Mississippi. It was merely an added benefit that he'd be removing Russell as a threat to me or Eric. And Pythia didn't think much of the Brigant family line, either. So it was two strikes against and she was very fond of soaking vampires in brine, which permanently wrinkled them and did other nasty things to them. I was _very _relieved he'd settled with Felipe.

Even I thought it was odd that no matter how frustrated I got with Victor's ability to make trouble, I couldn't bear the thought of anybody hurting him. It was almost an irrational thing with me. It made Eric mad at times. Victor was mischief personified, but I still felt he had a good heart and after a brief rough patch with him, he had sometimes been very comforting and protective of me. Originally that had been at Niall's request, but it had become much more genuine in the past year and a half. We usually spoke at least weekly now when I was home. He'd written me six letters, one a week, while I was most recently in Ireland, and he'd mailed them to Claudine, who'd pop them to me, except for the one he sent with Eric. He was so humorous in the letters but it was clear to me that he was lonely. As I read them I understood that he really liked the idea that I was family and that he had someone to write to. From our recent conversations I got the feeling that he didn't really trust anyone working for him in Jackson. The whole purpose of my visit from his perspective was to listen in to people around his compound to make sure no one was gunning for him. I really wondered what he'd gotten himself into. Although Victor was the consummate opportunist, I didn't see in him what I saw in some of the other Kings and Queens I knew. But maybe I just didn't want to.

My own purpose in visiting, other than just visiting my recently discovered cousin, was to find out more about our shared family. Niall had always avoided telling me about his son Fintan and the strange, almost Faustian, agreement that he had made with Fintan to stay away from Jason, Hadley and me in Fintan's lifetime. He had always been evasive about the reasons. It was getting to the point where I was really almost desperate to find out what the real deal was with my family. I had recently asked Pythia, who always had a bad thing or two to say about Niall, what the history was there. She'd said the usual terrible things to me about Niall, and his half-fairy sons Fintan and Dermot, when we were in Madison one night. She'd even called Fintan and Dermot reprobates. But she wouldn't tell me _why_ she thought badly of them. No one would. I'd asked Eithne and Claudine to no avail, as well. Everyone, even Eric, seemed to know _something_ but no one was giving up the info easily, and short of really pounding on someone's brain, it looked like I my only option was to get info from Victor. Victor was about three hundred years old. He was Dermot's grandson. He had to know something. I figured that if someone would tell me, he would.

Traffic was so slow on I-20 after Monroe. The trip took more than four hours because of construction delays. I had started out listening to my German language CDs. I was hopeful that eventually I could be passable in German and Gaelic. I really wanted to learn another language. All my good friends or loved ones were multilingual. Being around Eric and Pam was daunting. I really thought that Eric could speak _any_ language he put his mind to learning. Pam had learned French and German in her human life and had picked up Swedish and a fair amount of Norwegian from Eric because it had often been safer for them to communicate in those, since fewer people spoke the languages. Meanwhile Bill liked French and Spanish and had even learned some Japanese from an Asian vampire. Even Amelia was trilingual and she really liked to curse in French. Ah Amelia…

Amelia and I had recently worked through a rough patch in our friendship. I'd helped smooth a few things over for Tray. I wasn't feeling exactly comfortable with myself about _how_ I'd done it, but I still thought I'd done the right thing. I was just hoping that Eric wouldn't be too angry about it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Family**

II.

The traffic was finally easing up as I crossed into Mississippi. Having had enough of the German lessons, I switched to some Loreena McKennitt and tried to avoid the name association since I was driving to Jackson. I was listening to "The Mummer's Dance" as I pulled into the entry of what used to be Russell's compound. So I felt like I was in a movie as I drove into Victor's compound.

After passing the gate I was amazed to find that the grounds had been completely re-landscaped. Some of areas still looked open and grassy but there were rich plantings of roses on one side and then several beautiful gardens off to the other side of the main house. Most notably, there was now a small lake, planted with rushes and water lilies in the central area of the grounds. As I drove toward the house, I realized that the lake reflected the house. It was a really pretty effect. The drive now curved to the sides so that you had to drive around the lake and into the porte cochère. Still an excess of columns… Everything looked as if it had been freshly painted though, and the house itself had been toned down in colors from its bright whites to a muted ivory. It looked more stately now. Some of some of the garden walls in the distance had been painted a muted gray-green so that the plantings seemed to merge into them, giving the gardens greater depth. A lot of thought had gone into the grounds and the appearance of the exterior of the house.

I was directed by staff to leave my car in the porte cochère, behind a black Porsche Boxster. Victor's assistant, Polly Donovan, greeted me at the door. She and I had chatted several times on the phone in the past two weeks so I was curious to meet her. She seemed a bit frustrated when I wouldn't relinquish my suitcase to her but I was a good six inches taller than she was and I would have felt it was really silly to have her carry my bag. She was a pretty redhead with very fair skin. She was wearing a smart navy blue suit with jacket and skirt. And she had a nice set of fang marks on her neck As I so often did, I reminded myself yet again how lucky I was that Eric was so… understated. Polly didn't argue too much with me about my carrying my bag. She showed me into the house.

What little I could see as we moved past the foyer toward the stairs suggested the house had been entirely redone in with antiques. Even the long staircase had been redone with dark wood railings, with beautifully turned banisters. She walked me upstairs and down the hall to a huge bedroom that was furnished in what looked to my poorly educated eyes to be Victorian era antiques. Real ones. The room was a sort of robin's egg blue and had beautiful linens that appeared to have been hand embroidered. Ivory drapes that appeared to be faced with blackout material hung floor to ceiling on the wall with a huge bay window that overlooked the back gardens. A similar smaller drape could be adjusted over the door to the room. Even though they looked like they offered a lot of coverage, I had in my mind that I'd have to check how that worked before I wanted to think about Eric sleeping in that bed during the day. No other arrangements for him had been mentioned.

I thanked Polly and she left me after telling me that Victor's housekeeper, Mrs. Hodges, would be on hand in the kitchen to make anything that I wanted. I looked out the bay window over the back of the property. The pool, stables and dreaded garage in the distance were still there off to the far left but the view from my window was really more of the garden. There were now a series of terraced knot gardens all across the back, with stone paths to walk through the gardens. The plants all throughout the property looked well established, as if work must have begun right after Victor had taken the compound. I was just so stunned because it was a really huge property and I now had a real appreciation for how hard gardening and garden design was. This was a side to Victor that I had just not expected. He really obviously wanted to make this place beautiful. I realized now why he was so eager for us to visit him. He was proud of what he was doing with the property, his home.

I was slightly puzzled by all the changes to the house and grounds, though. Mississippi was not a very rich state, and Victor was giving a fifth of his revenue to Felipe. How on earth had he been managing to do such extensive renovation? Maybe the bulk of it had been done or paid for before early August and their agreement, I thought. Anyway, I sent a text message to Eric telling him he wouldn't recognize the house and grounds. It looked like something out of a BBC production.

I settled down in a chair and read for a while but then decided to take a nap. I hadn't gotten home until 5 am after the Halloween party. I could have tried out the blackout drapes but I left them open so I could see the blue sky. I crawled into the bedding and fell asleep listening to the birds outside.

When I suddenly awoke it was completely dark outside and dark in the room. I was on my side facing the window. But there was some cool illumination in the room and I turned, still a little foggy from sleeping. To my right, Victor was stretched out on the bed and was text messaging at vampire speed on his Blackberry. I jumped. He put out his left hand as if to stay my fright and then finished whatever he was texting.

"You don't snore. That's wonderful," he commented quietly while punching rapidly at the keyboard.

I got up out of the bed and just stared at him. "Victor, _what_ are you doing? Don't you think it's a little inappropriate to just show up in your married guest's _bed_? Geez. You _really_ scared me." I simply couldn't believe he'd gotten onto the bed with me asleep in it. Eric would flip out if he knew. Hell, _I _was flipping out. How could he have come in and I didn't sense it? I was so mad at myself.

"You being scared of _me_ is rather amusing, all things considered. Did I really upset you?" He hesitated for a minute. "Don't let's tell Eric, okay? He'll take it the wrong way and we were just starting to get along better."

He rose and walked around the bed and gave me a hug and kissed me on the cheek. He was dressed more casually than usual, but still had a teal blue sweater on over a black shirt and black slacks. He was wearing only socks and stood about an inch taller than me. I looked him in the eye trying to figure him out. I was still wary and kind of mad. I flashed into him but it didn't seem as if there was any particularly bad intention on his part.

"How was the drive ov… Whoa… well that was interesting." He shook his head a bit.

"Sorry… There were lots of construction delays after Monroe. How have you been?"

"Things have been going swimmingly. But I guess you should already know that _now_. Wow. At least I didn't end up screaming on the floor, like that guy from Kentucky…" he chuckled. "What do you think of the renovations? You were here several times when Russell was here, right?"

"It all looks beautiful Victor. Especially the gardens. I've really come to love gardening after all my time in Ireland. Who did your landscape design?" A quick glance out the window had confirmed that the gardens were beautifully but subtly lit at night.

"Well, actually, I did. You know I actually knew Capability Brown? The famous English landscape architect? He landscaped an area near where I used to live in Devon. And I used to spend time in Kew. I always loved growing things. My mother's family gardened like mad." He looked sad for a barely perceptible instant and then seemed to willfully toss off the mood and brighten. "Come, walk with me in the gardens. We have to stop by the kitchen to tell Mrs. Hodges what you want to eat."

"I never would have thought you would be into gardening. That's a real surprise." In spite of the transient sadness, it was the most enthusiastic I'd ever seen Victor, other than talking about mad power grabs. I wondered if perhaps he still missed his family from long ago.

I shook out my hair and ran my hairbrush through it. I slipped my shoes back on and followed him to the door. Then I paused. Did I really want to be seen exiting a _bedroom _with Victor? I cringed at the thought of how that would look to anyone in the house. And how long had he been in the room, anyway? I turned to him and asked,

"Victor, how long were you in here?"

He bit his lip. "Um…" He was slipping a pair of loafers back on his feet.

I glared at him. Clearly, from his hesitation, it had not been just a few minutes.

"About an hour."

I tried to keep my voice down as I growled "_An hour_? Geez! Do you _realize _how that looks? How many people are milling around this house? Shit Victor! What were you thinking?! What is _WRONG_ with you?" And what the hell was wrong with _me_? How could I have been asleep for an hour with him on that bed, I wondered. I _really_ needed to think about what I was doing. Maybe Pythia was right and I really should have a bodyguard when I wasn't with Eric.

He looked chagrined. "Not too many people around the actual house right now, Sookie. Don't worry. Oh, you're going to tell Eric, aren't you… I can already tell. I see it in your face..."

"Of _course_, I'm going to tell Eric! Do you think I'd want to chance Eric hearing it from someone else? Vampires love gossip. It's like your virtual blood or something. I just can't fucking _believe_ you! How the hell could you put me in such a position? You just stay in here. I'm leaving the room on my own. And don't you dare act like you're so sorry, because you're _not_ so sorry. I can see you're not. _Not at all_."

I stormed out of the room. The hall was empty. I went downstairs and walked around scouting things out. The house really was empty. The living room was in the midst of renovation and the wood flooring was being resurfaced. The room that was formerly some kind of rec room was being converted into a library with built in bookcases. It was almost complete and the shelves on one side of the room already had books. I walked by the shelves and saw the work of Marlowe, Dickens, Swift, Joyce… I sat down on a long leather couch, still breathing as if agitated, which I was. Maybe Eric was right and I shouldn't have come on my own. That made me even more agitated. Eric was right so much of the time. It was pretty annoying.

Victor came into the library room about five minutes later and looked slightly chastened. He sat on the couch and grimaced.

"Give me your phone."

"What?"

"I want to use your phone. I left mine upstairs."

He reluctantly handed me his phone. I punched in Eric's number and was surprised to see that it came up as speed dial number 4. I hit send.

"_What is it now_?" answered Eric, sounding quite annoyed.

"It's me." I could envision him looking at the screen again to check the number.

"Are you okay?" He sounded a bit taken aback.

"Well, Eric, I'm actually pretty upset. No, actually I'm mad." I glared at Victor. "I'm thinking you are a _way_ better judge of things than I am and that maybe, just maybe, I ought to quit that whole stubbornly forging ahead thing I'm so fond of."

"What's he done now?"

I bit my lip. "Um, I woke up and he was in, no… he was _on_ the bed, while I had been napping. He said he was in the room for _an_ _hour_. Obviously that could sound really, really ugly if anyone talked about it and I didn't want you to hear about it from anyone else, so I'm telling you. And I am so sorry I didn't wait until Saturday midnight so we could just come together."

Eric was silent. Then he laughed. Laughed…? "I just left you a voicemail message on your cell. He called me and told me. I'm glad his story matches yours, because it left me wondering. Don't worry about it, Lover. He said the house is pretty much empty. I told him he'll be very sorry if he does anything to upset you, though."

Okay, now this was weird. Eric sounded almost relaxed about the whole thing. How odd. Eric was not often relaxed about anything where Victor was concerned.

"I just didn't want you to hear about it from someone else. If he does _anything" _and here I gave Victor a dark look, "else, I'll take care of it myself."

"Yeah, I can see you were already really alert on that taking care of things front… Don't worry, Sookie. He won't do anything. I guarantee it. I'll be there tomorrow. I'll try to get away as early as I can."

"Well you can explain that guarantee to me when you get here. I'll let you go back to work. Don't worry."

"Oh, I'm not worried. Remember if you do anything bad to him you better tell Pythia, since he's a 'royal' now," he said snidely, chuckling. "I love you. Now remind him you're _mine_."

"Um hmmm. _Yours_." I glanced at Victor. "I love you back. I'll see you soon… Bye."

I handed Victor the phone.

"You called him and told him? I thought you were _so_ worried?" I said sharply.

"Well, I'd be a lot more worried about _your_ telling him first, as you did just now. I thought it would be better for me to tell him what I did and why you were upset with me. It's much smarter than hearing you all upset and thinking it was even worse than what you were telling him. Our stories match, no problems. Call it damage control."

Victor was just maddening for some things. What an apropos (Oct 28) surname he had. Anyway, he looked as if he was happy to be back in control of the situation.

He smiled and stood up offering me his hand. "Dinner arrangements and then the gardens?"

I took his hand tentatively, shaking my head. "You're an even worse cousin than Claude. And I didn't think that was possible."

"I bet I'm a lot more fun. Never a dull moment."

"I'm warning you Victor- no more funny stuff. I'm not kidding."

"I already regret upsetting you, so just relax and let's walk, okay?"

We went to the kitchen to speak to his housekeeper, Mrs. Hodges, and I asked for a simple salad. She was scandalized and said I was having a steak. She was this tiny older woman, but something in her manner made me think that she was right, and that I was going to have a steak. She said she'd make me a salad as a side dish. She had a really odd thought signature, I thought in passing. But Victor was urging me ahead so I didn't have time to explore it. After going through a pantry area we came to a door, which lead out to the back garden.


	3. Chapter 3

**Family**

A/N- Pronunciations: (most important bold) Saorla (Sayr-la, noble queen), Sorcha (Sur-ka, radiant light), Niamh (Neev, bright), **Naoise (Nee-sha**, meaning lost, sometimes given as 'connection'), **Niall (Neil or Nye-all,** means champion but is also associated with cloud, or passionate), Einín (Ay-neen, small bird), Noírín (Noreen, honor), Fiona (fee-o-na, white), Fionnula (Fin-o-la, fair or white shouldered), Mairéad (Mahr-ade, pearl), Eoín (Owen, God is gracious), **Saoirse (Seer-sha**, freedom),** Eithne (Ayt-na,** kernel or heart of the nut).

III.

The gardens were lit, though I guess Victor wouldn't need much light to enjoy them.

"So what did Eric say to you?" I asked Victor as we walked.

"Oh, he was just a big ball of Viking fun. Mentioned a sword, a broadsword I think? Colorful language. The usual. I'm not taking it too seriously."

I rolled my eyes. Victor was always a little on edge around Eric, so that was pretty hard to believe. The last time they'd really argued Eric looked only slightly ruffled and a bleeding Victor looked as if he'd seen his vampire life flash before his eyes. I guess having a six foot four inch thousand year old Viking standing over you snarling should give anyone pause for thought. The few times it had happened to me, I had certainly felt that way. But Eric never did stuff like that with me anymore. Stuff like that just made me more stubborn so he had gotten much stealthier since we were together.

As we had walked through the house, and now outside, I'd looked around and realized that other than the housekeeper and possibly Polly, there was really no one around.

"So if no one is here, how am I supposed to listen to all these people you're concerned about Victor?"

"Well, I thought you could do the human staff during the day. Maybe some of the Weres. And I'm giving a party at midnight Sunday. Later tonight I thought we could go to a few of my side businesses I 'inherited' from Russell." He said that last part very tongue in cheek.

I was still hung up on the party part. Victor was a King now. What kind of party? "A party? Not a formal party? But I didn't bring anything to wear for a formal party! I didn't really bring anything for a party, period. Why didn't you tell me, Victor?"

"It's kind of a change of plans. It's safer to wait until Eric is here. He's bringing something for you to wear. I told him about the plan when he was done telling me off. He's bringing something blue that you like I think he said? Definitely bringing you clothes. You'll probably have it on your voicemail. He said he was going to leave you a message about it. I just figured it was easier to have a party and have them in one place. That way you can also listen to how they are with each other."

"Okay… If that's how you want it. I can give it a try. Sure. But what is it that you're worried about Victor? You're being so evasive."

"I can't put it into words exactly. It's just a feeling. Like I can't trust them."

"Who?"

"Any of them, really. I can't put my finger on it. It's not any one thing. I just want you to tell me what you think."

The knot gardens were beautiful and the terracing made everything look much more impressive when you were at the bottom of the garden looking back up at the house.

We walked on in silence and I sensed that Victor was struggling with something else. It was like he was working up the energy to do something. Victor sometimes still did things around me that just made me shake my head. But this was different. It felt like he was very apprehensive about something.

"What about you? What about what you wanted to talk about?" he said quietly, at last.

I turned to look at him. I hadn't told him that I wanted to talk about anything. Had Eric?

He looked at me and nodded. "You wanted to know about family, Eric said? He mentioned it the other day." He looked diffident, as if pressing himself forward onto dangerous ground.

Suddenly, I knew that I had read the situation incorrectly. Victor had sent everybody away and had been there watching me because… because there was he was thinking about telling me something but it was hard for him. Maybe the whole being near me business had to do with finding the courage to talk about it. Victor was not a very trusting person, but he was thinking about trusting me. He was still pretty ambivalent about it.

"I do want to know about our family Victor. I've asked Niall so many times and he won't tell me. It was amazing to me that he even told me that you were my cousin. Claudine won't tell me anything either. She says only Niall can tell me. I haven't even bothered trying to ask Claude. I figured that if you've been around several hundred years that you must know something that you can share about our family."

He looked at me and gave me a sad smile. We came to a bench and he gestured that I should sit. He paced slowly and then looked out over the garden and sighed. He sat down next to me.

"Niall's made all kinds of threats about what he'll do if I tell you anything. Probably along the same lines with Claudine and Claude. But why do you want to know, Sookie? You're the nice one in the family. Why do you want to dredge up ancient history? It will just make you feel bad about the rest of us. It's kind of a sordid family history, you know?"

"It's my family, too, Victor. And I'm tired of being treated as if I'm the poor sheltered child who mustn't know anything. So many people have made remarks about the Brigant family but I don't really know what any of it is about. I don't even know about my real grandfather, Fintan, other than that he was Niall's son and kept Niall from seeing me. It's like being adopted and wanting to know where you really came from or something. I want to understand, that's all."

He sighed and turned away to look out over the gardens. Finally, after leaning his head slightly to one side and making hmmm sounds, he turned to me.

"I can tell you some things. Actually, a lot of things. But I don't know everything. I know a lot, but it's from my own perspective. I can tell you about how I became a vampire and that part of the history. It ties a lot together and it's my story, mine to share, not Niall's. Niall's told you that Dermot was my grandfather, right?"

"Yes. Did you know your grandfather?"

"Yes. I knew Dermot. He died after I did, so to speak. And I knew Fintan, too. So I can tell you my story because that's bound up in their story. Dermot and Fintan… They were close, but very different. Dermot, my grandfather, was kind of reckless and risk-taking. Sometimes playful, but sometimes quite a violent man. My father, Conor, was a quarter fae and a lot like his father. He was born and raised in Ireland too, as was I."

"Wait- why isn't your last name Brigant, if Dermot's _son_ is your father?"

He smiled. "You're getting ahead of the story, Sookie. For the record, Madden is my mother's surname. She was from Cill Dara, County Kildare." Victor was actually lapsing back into a brogue. I was amazed.

"County Kildare is immediately south of Meath, right?"

"Yeah… Yes. The Brigant family originally lived in Meath and Kildare. It's like a nexus of the human and fae worlds. Living in our enclaves we kept out of the way of the English, who held Ireland at that time. By the time I was born, Niall was already a fierce prince of the Fae. His Fae children were all daughters- Sorcha and Saorla, Niamh. The sons he had were half-fae. By the time I was born, Dermot and Fintan were several hundred years old and they struggled with their positions among the Fae. They were the 'poor' relations. They had only a little magic of their own, and they had built rather bad reputations for being troublemakers, after their mother, Einín, died. Dermot and Conor, my father, were always very frustrated by their lack of… magic isn't exactly the right word. It was more than that. I think they really wanted _power_. They didn't have real power, like Niall. Of course it was easy in those days to get power by just abusing people, making them afraid, especially if you came from a powerful family. They used that angle to get away with a lot of things. Especially when they were drunk. And they were impressive drunkards. I spent most of my time with my mother Fíona's family. The Maddens were part fae too, but just an easier going crowd. The Brigants were a rowdier lot. But anyway, Dermot was always looking to create an impression. His misguided desire was to make himself useful, to prove himself powerful in other, non-magical ways. Since there were a lot of the Fae in Ireland, and they obviously feared vampires, Dermot got the idea of going down to Wicklow, Carlow and Wexford, where there were vampires enclaves and just killing as many as he could get. I guess he thought it would impress his fae relations and friends. Mind you, these vampires were really pretty much just feeding on humans and largely not even draining them out or anything. They avoided the Fae, because they were trying to just co-exist with everyone. Ireland in those days was still like a magical wilderness. The supernatural community was largely veiled from the English and unknown to the government. We lived in our own world. There was more tolerance for different races than existed in most of the rest of Europe. But that tolerance didn't last. Thanks to the Brigants. "

He paused and looked as if the very name was distasteful.

"So Dermot and Conor would go on raids during the day to Wicklow, Carlow and Wexford and even sometimes in Kildare, and find vampire nests and burn down the structures, or just go around staking people if they could find their resting places. They were careful to avoid northern Kildare and Meath because of all the Brigid descendants there. The Tuatha Dé Danann didn't approve much of such fighting. But Dermot and Conor still killed many vampires. Vampires started leaving the east of Ireland, but some, not surprisingly, were angered and decided to fight back. This was in the early 1700's, around 1710. It started when I was 15. Some of the vampires started to go after the Fae in retaliation. Well after several rounds of attacks on both sides, my father Conor, was killed in 1713. They left him on the doorstep. Really subtle… He was only 55, which was pretty young in our family. Dermot and Niall were really angry, and in retaliation, Niall, with Dermot's help, destroyed a large nest, of 24 vampires, in Meath, near Navan. They said they wanted to get rid of all the vampires in our counties. All but one of the vampires in Meath was killed. That one, Devin Lomán, escaped and hid down in Wicklow. He was very angry. By this time, Niall and his family were really hated by the vampires in eastern Ireland. Their attacks seemed arbitrary and not tied to any sense of justifiable retribution. Devin wanted revenge, but just killing a bunch of Fae didn't seem as if it would change the course of anything. It would just be more of the same. He decided that maybe Dermot and Niall would have a different approach to things if one of their own was made vampire. He wanted to send a message that the Fae weren't safe from the vamps in more ways than one. So one night he caught me, and he turned me. Three days later he delivered me, newly awake and starving, into a Fae enclave of friends and family in Meath, near Tara."

I gasped. Victor paused then, just staring out into the garden in front of us.

I shivered at the thought. Victor had been turned for _revenge_? He was used, just to send a message to Niall and Dermot? He had been dropped off back in his fae family's home turf as a hungry, newly made vampire?

Victor's face was impassive as stone, just expressionless. But sitting next to him I could feel he was reliving something really horrible.

"How old were you? Eighteen?"

"I'd just turned nineteen. I was in madly in love with a girl, a fae girl, named Mairéad. She was a second cousin. She was young and beautiful. So to just get it over with, I showed up on her doorstep hungry, horny, and I'm sure you can imagine the rest."

I shuddered. He had killed the woman he loved in some intoxicated blood lust? My eyes just filled with tears for him. I could see that for him it was still fresh in his mind, the sheer horror of what he had done, almost three hundred years before.

He was quiet for a time but then resumed. "Naoise, Mairéad's father figured out it was me, though I don't know how. He figured out what had happened and he was horribly angry. But not just at me. He blamed Niall and Dermot for the whole business. For inciting the violence with the vampires. Brigid's descendants in Meath and Kildare put a ban on any further actions by Niall in their area. They tried to comfort Naoise and reason with Niall to put a stop to it all."

He paused again. It was as if he was trying to decide how to move forward from there.

"But Niall didn't listen. Devin was hiding down in Wicklow, further south. It didn't take long for Niall and Dermot to find him. So Niall killed my sire, Devin. He and Dermot wanted their revenge but Niall also didn't want me beholden to a sire. I could have been used against them, and they would have had to kill me. Clearly though, I couldn't live in Ireland anymore, couldn't be around family and friends. They didn't want Naoise to kill me either, so they hid me and kept me under control by magic and with silver. I had no sire to help me learn to live as a vampire, so Niall sent me to live in England, with a very old vampire he knew. Edward Ashe was more my sire in the sense that really matters. He lived on an estate in Devon. He was an unusual person, a real teacher. He understood what had been done to me, what had been taken from me. He was old, about the age Eric is now, and in a way he was an interesting character. He was not afraid to break rules and as vampires go, he was kind to me. He was never all that harsh with me for breaking rules and taking chances, even though I was young. He tried to teach me justly but firmly. I was very unruly, especially with my own kind. I was never afraid to take from other vampires because of what had been taken from me. I even had to use my mother's surname because clearly it would be unseemly to be a _vampire_ and go by the name Brigant. Niall forced me to take my mother's family name. I lost my family, my lover, my home, and couldn't even keep my own name… all because of Devin Lóman. So I became determined to get my revenge on my kind. To wrest power however I could. If I'd been turned, I'd make the best of it. I could always coast by on charm and luck, true to my roots, when I needed to. And then I'd just take whatever I wanted, whenever I could."

I reached over and picked up his hand. It was really horrible. He'd lost _everything_. It was another of the many really horrible 'made vampire' stories, but this was _my_ family. The impact was much harder to absorb.

"So you left Ireland and all your family? Did you ever get to go back? Did Niall and Dermot visit you in England?"

"No, I've never been back. There would be nothing to go back for, because I can't be there without… remembering. I never saw my grandfather again. My only family left is Fae but Niall has visited me only four times in almost three hundred years. There are so many Fae there, probably even more now, in Kildare and Meath, since all the vampires are gone. How could I ever go there? And where you go, in Meath with Eithne, Saoirse and Declan and that bunch, it is the way it is because of the Brigants. Dermot and Conor started it, then Devin reacted to it, then Niall reacted to him. It was like this chain of retribution, of hatred. But it gets worse. Naoise believed that Mairéad was dead because of Niall and Dermot's reckless killing, because they had changed a balance of co-existence. Devin was already dead, so the only outlet for his anger was really Niall and Niall's family."

"But he would have been going after the family of a prince right? How could he risk that?"

Victor smiled an ironic smile and nodded.

"Sookie, Naoise is Niall's brother. His younger brother. They truly hate each other. You really can't imagine how much. It's barely worth calling them family because it's in name only. It's gone on for centuries that way between them. Niall had all the power of his position, but he reacts impulsively and just based on emotion at times. Like when he sought vengeance for my father's death. The vampires in Meath had nothing to do with my dad Conor's death. The Meath vampires were just an easy target because it was a large nest. Niall is very reckless and can be very bad tempered when he's crossed. Naoise had always been a quieter, more thoughtful type. But when I killed Mairéad, I guess something just snapped in him. It was like he went crazy or something. It really split the family in half and created warring factions among the Irish Fae. Niall, Dermot's and Conor's actions had actually made things, in the end, _much_ less safe between the Fae and the vampires. The vampires hated the Fae. The Fae hated the vampires, and they hated the other side of their own family. It was a very dark time…"

"You don't mention Fintan at all, Victor. Was he involved in all of this too? You said that he and Dermot were close."

"They were close, yes. But, no, Fintan did not go around killing vampires. He had no interest in Dermot's power trip. Fintan was a ladies man. He was easy going. He didn't exactly agree with Niall and Dermot. The vampires who had been killed, other than Devin, hadn't really done anything to anyone other than some unlucky humans. I guess you could say that Fintan disagreed with Dermot and Conor, but he was too busy fooling around to be very vocal about it. Your brother Jason seems a lot like Fintan. But Fintan finally allied himself with Naoise, because he said the killing should stop. That infuriated Niall. That was their first falling out. Naoise still wanted his revenge for Mairéad, but I was gone, so eventually, Naoise killed my grandfather Dermot to get back at Niall. Fintan felt betrayed. Even if he had disagreed with Dermot, they were brothers. The fighting between Naoise and Niall was like a war from that time forward. Fintan was really caught in the middle. I don't know about it directly because my father's family had pretty much distanced themselves from me because I was a vampire. For a while my sister Fionnula, some of her children and grandchildren would keep me abreast of things. There were frequent violent exchanges that went on for decades and in one of these, around 1830, Fintan killed Naoise's son, Eoín with an iron rod, supposedly in self-defense, as I understand it. Fintan ended up leaving Ireland, for his own safety, and moving to America. I guess that's how he eventually met your grandmother."

"You said that Niall visited you, right? He tried to make sure you were okay?"

Victor chuckled at that. "Not for centuries. After I was dropped off with Edward, he didn't visit me. Until very recently. Four times in the past two and a half years. First to warn me not to hurt _you_. Then to toss me around like a sack of potatoes and scorch me a bit because I hurt your wrist that time in the shifter's bar. Then he visited me before Memphis and told me that I had better help him take care of you because you were my cousin. Then he visited me after you and Eric had that argument and you went to Ireland, I guess because he said you liked me and he would take you news of my situation in Mississippi."

"He only visited you because of _me_?" I was shocked. And he had threatened Victor about his treatment of me... It made me feel terribly guilty.

"Yeah. Although he's called me more frequently since I got involved with you. I have contact numbers and addresses, even for Claudine and Claude. I hear from him every once in a while now. It's not like I've been missing him or anything, you know?"

I struggled to take it all in. It was worse than I had thought it would be. All the fighting, the hatred. And the murders. I had thought the Fae were beautiful and noble. It turned out they were beautiful, violent, and bellicose (I couldn't remember the day in October for that word, I was too upset. But it certainly seemed to describe the Brigants.). They certainly weren't sounding much better than the vampires to me. It was really hard to believe that the Niall I knew as my great-grandfather had been involved in, or even led some of these things. They all seemed so fueled by blind hatred and intolerance. And he had basically disowned Victor until he had a _use_ for him.

Victor seemed to sense my struggling with it. He rose and offered me his hand.

"You should eat. Eric really will be mad if I don't make sure you eat well. He told me you skip meals all the time, especially if you get upset. And I wasn't supposed to get you upset. I'm supposed to take good care of you."

I took his outstretched hand. Without intending to, I sort of read him as I touched him. There was more. And it was much worse. What could possibly be _worse_? He didn't think I was ready for it.

I wasn't.


	4. Chapter 4

**Family**

IV.

We ate dinner, well, I ate dinner and Victor drank dinner, in the absurdly dramatic dining room with the table that would easily sit twenty. The steak was delicious. Victor was still stone-faced. But I picked up an odd restive energy from him beneath it all. He seemed inwardly agitated. I decided to keep things light. We could talk about the house, since he seemed to put so much of himself into it. Maybe it would cheer him up.

"Where did you get all the furniture, Victor? It's all really beautiful."

"It was all Edward's. He left it all to me. I had it shipped over recently."

I glanced over at him surprised. "You make it sound like he made a will and then died or something." Not a vampire-like thing to do…

Victor raised his eyebrows and nodded as if that was correct.

I put down my fork, amazed. "You mean he met the sun?"

He shook his head. "No, no. He asked me to stake him. Faster, less painful."

"You _did_ it?" I looked at him open mouthed. I was incredulous.

He made a gesture with his hands as if he thought I didn't get it. "Less _painful_?"

"But why did he want to die for real?"

"He was twelve hundred years old and his human had just died from illness. He was sick of everything. Not everyone wants to be immortal. Edward really was not so much into the violence or power of being a vampire. He didn't really like those aspects of it, actually. The world was certainly not offering much better around him. It was right after the World War II. He was just tired of it all."

"But didn't you feel awful doing that?"

"No. He really wanted me to. I actually came back from the States just to help him."

"But don't you miss him?"

He looked thoughtful for a moment, as if considering things he usually ignored. "I miss his advice. Yes, I suppose I do miss him, if that's the word for it. For a vampire Edward was pretty okay. He was certainly always very good to me. He was the one who told me to connect with Felipe. That certainly worked out well once I left England and came back to the States. But now, I'm on my own."

He looked away slightly, and I felt his thoughts were dark, lonely. Vampires just have so much trouble with feelings. I mean, I'd literally had to pull Eric and Pam out of a collapsing building in broad daylight before they'd been fine with their feelings about me. And vampires could barely admit feelings for each other, too, in my experience. (Pam and Eric would never say they loved each other, but they did…) Victor's surrogate sire Edward seemed to have been exceptionally kind with Victor and I was sure he must miss him if he had surrounded himself with all of Edward's things. In my experience it was rare for vampires to have much in their homes that would give away information about who they were and their history. Victor has surrounded himself with some of his history, even if it was just in furniture, gardens and books.

"Victor, you seem so lonely here. Don't you have any children that you can bring to help you? You've said that you don't trust anyone here. Wouldn't you trust a child? At least you could feel them and be sure of them."

"I've never turned anyone. The only person I'd ever be tempted to turn would be you."

I dropped my fork. The clattering sound as it impacted the plate and then the table echoed in the large room. I just stared at him. Was he _trying_ to set me on edge? It was working.

"Well, it's true. You'd be great to have around forever. It was quite disappointing to me when Eric told me he'd promised not to turn you. And certainly he's the one with dibs. You've obviously had so much of his blood if anyone else even tried you'd still be his. Anyway, I'm not turning anyone. Not even Polly and she offered herself to be turned. The last thing I'd do is make more vampires. The vampires and the Fae, just great races..."

He sounded so bitter.

I just didn't even know what to think of Victor anymore. All of his political maneuvering, his crazy grabs for power, his flipping positions for personal gain at the expense of any alliance previously made, all of it seemed to stem from his contempt of vampires and vampire society. His twisting the rules and turning the tables on people made a lot more sense to me when I considered his history. He'd been a son of a royal Fae family and had been dumped after he was turned. He'd had no real sire to cow him into obedience to the vampire social system and had no love of his kind to make him respect their hierarchical structure. _When you don't care about the people who made the rules you've got no reason to follow them_ I thought to myself.

He smiled a sour smile. "Sookie, you look like you just don't know what to think about me anymore. Anyway, I've come to terms with all of it, or at least most of it. I'm making the best of it that I can, and look around you…" He gestured toward the rest of the house. "It's working very well. I've climbed to the top and I'm just over 312 years old. The youngest King in North America by far. I want to enjoy it. And I will."

"Victor, I'm assuming you want to keep what you told me private? Few people know?"

"Only a few know my true history. Niall. Naoise. Some of the Fae family still alive. I guess someone like Pythia would know about it if she bothered. Edward's gone. No other vampires. Bill Compton's database even lists Edward as my sire. You're the first person I've ever actually _told_. It's not like I go around wearing my heart on my sleeve. It wouldn't be very useful to have everyone know what motivates me is along the lines of hatred, now would it? I should be all "vampires first" as they say. Well I'm _me_ first. I've had to be."

He said this last part so coldly. It was hard to know what to say in reply. I'd lost my appetite. I placed the fork back on my plate and took a long sip of the red wine.

"So the first person I need you to check out is Polly. You should spend time with my housekeeper, and then the day staff for my office downtown. And tonight, I have to go do my rounds for business. Will you join me?"

It was like he had just snapped back, elastically, to the Victor I knew. His eyes were back to being bright and mischievous, his whole face back to the expressive one I knew.

"When will you tell me the rest, Victor? You didn't tell me everything."

His face darkened again. His glittering brown eyes looked at me as if making a trenchant (Oct 31) assessment of what I could take and what he could tell me.

"When Eric is here. You'll be upset. You should have him comforting you, not me."

Yes, that was probably a good idea… I was getting such a weird vibe from Victor, actually. I rose from the table and started to pick up the plate and glass. He rose quickly and was at my side.

"Leave it. Mrs. Hodges will do that. You're not a waitress anymore and you certainly won't ever act like one in any home of mine." He took my hand and pulled me away from the table and toward the entry hall and stairs.

"Do you want to change?" he asked me. He stood uncomfortably close to me as he asked, still holding my hand. His face was close to mine and I avoided looking up into his eyes.

I'd slept in my clothes, so I said yes. I pulled away from him, with relief, and went upstairs to the bedroom. I took out a pair of fresh jeans, an ivory turtleneck and my caramel colored leather jacket. I thought distractedly about everything Victor had told me. I felt so sad for him. Once I'd changed, I brushed my hair quickly with my head hung down, and put it into a ponytail. I turned around to find Victor leaning against the doorframe watching me with obvious interest. I had closed the door when I'd entered the room. Had he watched me change? I was creeped out thinking that maybe he had, but frankly, I didn't even care how long he'd been there. He'd crossed a line I'd clearly told him not to cross again.

I smacked him back against the wall across from the door and held him pinned there. I walked purposefully out the door and up to him. He looked down at me with a smile, fangs run down, full of expectancy. He was so _not_ afraid of me. I stared up into his eyes. He actually tried to glam me a bit. I felt the tenuous fingers of his mind try to reach mine. Victor knew I couldn't be glammed. What was the point in this little game? Was he trying to upset me, or just see how much he could get away with? Or maybe Victor was angry at me, and at himself, for having trusted me. Yes, that was it… He was angry he'd let his guard down and trusted me.

"So you're trying to upset me because _you're_ upset you told me something too personal?"

He didn't even respond to my question. "You know, I just love it that you can't be glamoured. Everything you do is so _genuine_, Sookie. You're so… irresistible."

"Victor, you're playing with fire. You're going to cut this crap out, or I'm going to get in my car and drive right back to Shreveport. _I want your word you're going to stop behaving this way_."

He looked down at me as if I was a five foot nine inch tall confection. I felt as if his eyes were rolling so heavily across me they could leave tread marks. Geez. I thought we'd gotten past all this many months ago.

He finally looked me in the eyes again and pulled himself back on track to respond to me. "I can't promise."

Well, frankly… I believed him. I was torn. I could just leave, but I'd be letting him effectively ruin our friendship. If I had to drive back to Shreveport in the middle of the night I knew Eric would just go ballistic. And we were family. We both craved family and had precious little of it. I wouldn't give up on family easily. I continued to hold him against the wall and began, in a gentler fashion than earlier in the evening, to pick through his brain. I had to understand where he was coming from, and to know if I was going to be able to stay here with him. I didn't know what I'd do if another male family member ever went after me in a sexual sense. Now that I had more than a little power of my own, my thought that Bill had overreacted with Uncle Bartlett several years ago was tempered with a smooth overlay of 'hope he made it quick…' because when you have power it's really hard not to seek retribution where there's been harm done. I couldn't stay if Victor couldn't behave himself. It was too risky _to him_.

Victor was extremely ambivalent about having told me everything he had. He was truly fearful of what Niall would do about it. And he was fearful I didn't like him anymore since now I knew what motivated him was so dark. Maybe I wouldn't even care what Niall did to him. He thought he had taken an absurd risk. He was upset that he still had such painful feelings about killing Mairéad after three hundred years. Talking about it made him face things he hadn't thought about for decades. And yes, he'd developed a real thing for me over the past two years. His thoughts about me were all over the place. Friend, family, mixed with stuff that was downright inappropriate to be thinking about your married cousin. But I didn't think that he would really _act_ on any of it. He viewed himself above behaving really badly with women, especially with me. He didn't want me to think badly of him. He was already upset with himself over the way he was behaving, and embarrassed that I was scanning through his thoughts about it and even more embarrassed thinking I might be hearing some of that inappropriate stuff. His line might be in different place than mine, but he wouldn't cross it.

"Victor, _I'll_ deal with Niall. Don't worry about it. And of course I still care about you, but I don't like the crap you've been pulling with me." I snapped my fingers in front of his face because his eyes had started to drift downward from mine again. "Listen, you better stop looking at me that way. If you ever walk in on me again, or cross the threshold of any closed door without knocking first to ask for permission to enter when I am your guest or you mine, you'll regret it. _I'm not telling you again_. You have to cut this shit out. Are we clear? Because I'm _not_ putting up with it, Victor."

I turned back into the room to get my purse and then passed him as I walked down the hall. I let him drop, but softly enough so he landed on his feet. He traipsed down the hall and the stairs after me. He tossed his keys in his hand as he darted past me double quick and opened the front door for me. As I started to walk past him he looked me in the eyes, bit his lip and then said with a wicked smile,

"You are absolutely, bar none, the most exciting woman I've ever met, Sookie."

The continued bravado. Just amazing. Thank goodness for five years as a barmaid. He might be more than three hundred years old but I was the one acting like an adult.

I ignored him.


	5. Chapter 5

**Family **

V.

I didn't go to sleep until well past dawn, really totally _clearly_ past dawn. After my experience with Lorena here in Jackson, and Eric willing himself to stay awake for a while longer in Madison, I really didn't think of dawn as quite the same vampire deadline that I used to. I checked the lock on the door, which seemed to work, although I was sure Victor had a key. But I didn't really think he'd do anything anyway. After a few text messages back and forth with Eric a little while before dawn, I'd set my cell phone alarm for noon. I frankly couldn't wait to see Eric and feel his arms around me. Eric would be here tonight, or early Saturday morning at the latest, and then, hopefully, things would smooth over. Staying awake until dawn also allowed me to check the ivory blackout curtains, which still had me a little worried. But they seemed to work fine.

So at least now I understood at last the origin of my almost irrational feeling that I didn't want anything to Victor hurt. He had been _so_ wronged by our family. He was so hurt and such a hard fix. Many of Victor's emotional problems had become survival skills, however. If too much changed there, he'd be really vulnerable considering his present situation as a King. The whole situation made me feel bad for him. He was such a complex character. Maybe he was twisted enough to survive as a King after all, though. Me first was definitely a common thread through all the ones I'd met thus far, although some of the nicer ones like Sophie-Anne or even Felipe seemed to consider their inner circle to be pretty much a part of that 'me, first' bit.

I rose at noon, put on jeans and a red cowl necked sweater and my black flats. After brushing my hair and putting it back in a ponytail, I went downstairs. I found Mrs. Hodges was reading _Sense and Sensibility_ in the kitchen. She was tiny, barely five feet tall if that, and looked quite old now that I could see her in clear daylight. She wore a long white dress, a light blue apron. Her gray-streaked brown hair was in a neat bun and her amber eyes were sharp and clear.

"Mr. Victor said I must tempt you to eat, Mrs. Northman." She spoke with a queer accent. I asked her were she was from and asked her to call me Sookie.

"Cornwall, ma'am. But I worked for Mr. Edward and Mr. Victor in Devon for many years."

Edward? But Edward had died right after World War II according to Victor. I looked at her closely. What was she to be so long lived? Her thought signature was like none I'd ever seen. She did look quite old, but still… She seemed to read my puzzlement and be very aware of my closer examination of her thoughts.

"I'm a korrígan. My family was originally from Brittany. We moved to Cornwall and then I worked for Mr. Edward in Devon. Then I stayed on watching the estate for Mr. Victor. I shift." Her hands effortlessly turned to paws like that of a housecat and her eyes shifted shape to cat-like eyes.

"I see. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be nosy. I've never met a korrígan before."

"And I've never had the pleasure of meeting a member of the Tribe before." She bowed low to me. Well, she had _me _all scoped out. How could she tell I wondered?

"I've already made your breakfast." She gestured to the table, which was already set for me.

Mrs. Hodges _stuffed_ me with eggs and sausage and fruit. I simply couldn't say no to her. I sat chatting with her for the better part of an hour. Korrígans were a rare race now, native to Britanny, the Celtic region of France, and the Channel Islands like Jersey. Some people had thought they were of the Fae, but they had different origins and a different magic. They also did not have the intoxicating effect on vampires that the Fae did. They were disappearing race because they found the modern world a strain. They loved houses, the countryside and quiet work. She was over two hundred years old. She was a seer of sorts. She loved Victor like a son and fussed over him. She missed Devon and Cornwall and thought that the States were a big adjustment. She was only here because of Victor. She seemed to think he really needed taking care of. I was rather inclined to agree with her.

As I was finishing, Polly arrived and greeted me nervously. Mrs. Hodges smiled up at her. Polly looked lovely in her lavender coatdress, which set off her red hair and fair skin. I asked her to have coffee with me in the library. I sensed she was troubled by something in my presence. It seemed to me that she was jealous of me, because Victor was so fond of me. As we walked to the library I felt as if she was studying me closely, trying to figure me out. She didn't get what all the fuss was about and didn't even think I was all that pretty. And I had an odd manner, she thought, as if I was always listening to something else. With that I decided that Polly was pretty clever. I glanced over at her and winced looking at the bite mark on her neck. She was so beautiful and fair skinned, and the bite mark really stood out. I almost got the feeling she was proud of it, though.

Over coffee, I chatted with Polly about the renovations of the house and quickly realized that she was just gone on Victor. I didn't even need to be a mind reader for that one. She went on and on about all the renovations and that he wasn't using any architects or designers and had drawn all of the plans himself. She was utterly taken with him. And it wasn't that she was into the fact that he was a powerful vampire. She really liked _him_. He was nice with her, but often distant, I could see. After spending almost a year working for him in Jackson, she was hoping that she'd get him to turn her in order to be bound to him, or that at least he would make the relationship with her more official. They had been together for about seven months. She didn't like being only his assistant 'with benefits'. She wanted more. I felt kind of sad for her. Victor had never even mentioned her to me as anything more than his assistant. And she really didn't have a clue what she was asking to get drawn into. She thought vampires were interesting, even beautiful, but the mere fact that she thought that having Victor turn her would secure a better place in his life was indicative of her naïveté. She really liked vampires, but knew little about their _real_ world. There was something about her though, I thought. She was sharp about other things and had an inner strength and a sweetness about her. I liked the fact that she genuinely seemed to like Victor for himself. It was a rare quality, especially for someone in Victor's position.

Polly had a long list of people, human and were, whom I was to 'interview', including even the groundsmen who worked in the garden. She showed me around and introduced me to everyone as Victor's cousin. I didn't really read much that was negative although some of the groundsmen thought that Victor was a real pill because he wanted things planted in a very specific way. He really was very involved in the grounds redesign and could be quite unreasonable about some things. Getting into an argument with a vampire did not seem much of an option.

I didn't see a problem with any of the humans, Weres and certainly not Mrs. Hodges. And I liked Polly. I had 'interviewed' people at three of Victor's businesses, a low-key club for Weres, an all night grocery spot, and a strip club that had some vampire dancers, the previous night. I hadn't seen anything to worry about, even in the Were club, where given Victor's involvement in Alcide's business troubles, he might have been disliked. But it seemed that no one even thought of anything along those lines. Alcide was a Shreveport Were, and not even really on the radar of the Jackson Weres. I'd already met 14 of his employees the previous night and it seemed that actually he was liked substantially more than Russell had been. Russell had a nasty reputation for torturing people. After the takeover, Victor, as I could now see, had a reputation for just killing people and having done with it. He wasn't cruel. He _was_ an insane driver in his Porsche, but I was almost used to that kind of thing because of Eric and Pam.

I stayed in my room reading in the late afternoon, though Mrs. Hodges brought up tea and lemon teacakes. I ate them obediently. I sent Eric a text message for when he woke up.

Shortly after 6 pm, there was a soft knock at the door. It was Victor, of course.

"Yes?" I asked.

"May I come in to speak with you?"

"Of course."

He strode in and sat down on the edge of the bed. He was pale tonight and clearly hadn't fed. He was dressed in charcoal gray, with a butter yellow v-necked sweater that looked like it was cashmere.

"How is my beautiful cousin this evening?" he asked archly, looking at me curled up in the armchair with my book.

"I'm fine, thank you Victor. How are you?" He was so pale. I would have thought that he would have been with the lovely Polly but clearly he was waiting for my view on that.

"Tell me about Polly," he said with sparkling eyes.

"She's very sweet, she really likes you. I think the bite marks are extremely tacky, but that's just me."

"She likes it. She wanted me to leave marks. She says she's mine."

"I wouldn't think you'd want to have her looking tacky if she's yours. She really genuinely likes you, Victor. I hope you won't toy with her, if you can't return the affection. You'll ruin her for other people and she'll end up being like a fangbanger or something. She doesn't deserve that because she really cares for you." I hadn't intended to spill it all out like that but I was concerned that Polly was in way over her head. I was actually amazed that he was even asking my opinion about her, though.

He looked thoughtful. Polly was sweet and Victor didn't really want sweet, I could see. Sweet required more care on his part. And he liked to live a little dangerously.

"I'll fire her," he said.

I just sighed.

"It's a shame. She's very organized and efficient. She was a real find," he said.

I still didn't comment.

"I'll think about firing her… Do you think I should fire her?" he asked me.

"I'm only telling you what I see Victor, not what to do. She really cares about you. I think you like her a lot more than you're willing to admit, too. If you don't want to deal with that, it's your business. But there's just something I really like about her. And I adore Mrs. Hodges, too. She could make a _rock_ eat."

He laughed. "I've known Mrs. Hodges for well over a century. She's really very nice, isn't she? She hates Mississippi, though. I'm hoping she won't go back to England. I knew you'd like her. She's always been good to me."

I smiled. He seemed almost un-vampire describing Mrs. Hodges. He was obviously very, very fond of her.

"What about everybody else?" he asked.

"Every single person I've seen seems okay. Why do you think someone is "gunning for you" as you put it? You say it's everyone but what made you start feeling that way? It would make it easier for me to zero in on things if I knew what started you thinking there was a problem."

"I can't explain it. I don't know how. It's a feeling I get. We'll wait for the party tomorrow night and then you can tell me what you think. Shall we walk for a while?"

"Okay, but I want to walk around to the front and see the lake, too." I slipped on my shoes and turned toward the door.

He nodded and then hesitated. He looked at me and said, "I'm… sorry. For how I behaved. I've never talked about it before. I just… It's the kind of thing you only share with someone you're close to, I guess, and… well, you already know how I feel, so, I'm sorry, okay?"

I was amazed he was apologizing. It only reaffirmed my take on his thoughts the previous night.

"We're fine," I said softly. I kissed his cheek, smiled gently and then headed out of the room.

We went downstairs and found Polly lingering in the kitchen. I spoke with Mrs. Hodges about dinner and then asked Polly if she was joining us for dinner and for our walk. Victor bristled, but I went over and cordially took Polly's arm and walked toward the garden door with her. She seemed caught off-guard by my inclusive manner, but pleased. I could tell that she was worried that Victor kept going to see me upstairs in the bedroom. It was part of why she had lingered around. She was trying to be open-minded but it was a real struggle for her. When I announced that my husband would be coming later tonight and she smiled broadly. Victor walked a few steps behind us and I could hear him making snide comments mentally about Eric's arrival and my spending quality time on Polly when he wasn't sure he wanted to keep her around.

Victor was sullen during dinner, while Polly and I chatted. She was originally from Little Rock but had moved to Jackson several years before for a job and then had started working for Victor shortly after the takeover. She was a bit older than I had surmised, twenty-five, and really hadn't had much of a close family life. Her parents still lived in Little Rock and were very conservative. They did not approve of her present situation. Most of the vampires she'd known had been involved in the arts, not in politics. She had been excited by the opportunity to work for Victor. She told me that she thought vampires were exotic and beautiful. Victor rolled his eyes. She did seem very naïve. But I still liked her. Her experience of vampires had been very limited but she had an open mind, which was startling in someone of her upbringing. It marked her as an independent thinker in my book. She really saw Victor as a person, not entirely different from herself. And Victor could definitely do much worse than have a companion who truly liked him. Surely he could see that? It seemed like he was almost afraid to see it.

Shortly before 10 pm I started feeling waves of warmth and happiness and I knew that Eric was arriving early. The doorbell rang several minutes later and Eric was there with Alcide, who had driven Eric. Eric was wearing jeans, a black t-shirt and a black leather jacket. He dropped his bag just inside the door and carried a garment bag. We locked eyes and my heart just swelled. I smiled pleasantly at Alcide, who looked at me as if he was quite chary of me now. I was totally sided with the vamps in his mind. He was in his trademark plaid shirt and jeans and did not smile back at me but did say hello back when I greeted him. He looked quite worn out. A three plus hour drive with Eric would not likely be fun. Though Eric probably could have flown, I was sure that Eric had taken then opportunity to have some fun with Alcide at Alcide's expense. He pretty much owned him lock, stock and barrel these days. Alcide glanced around the interior of the house with a bit of interest. Meanwhile Victor looked at Alcide as if Eric had brought along a prospective meal. _Alcide is the bastard that said the nasty things about Sookie_... he was reminding himself. Grabbing Victor's arm, I thanked Alcide for bringing Eric and gave him the "get the hell out of here while you can look". He got the message and left immediately. Mrs. Hodges claimed the garment back and small suitcase.

I was so happy to see Eric and wrapped myself into his arms after kissing him. Polly seemed quite taken aback by him and stood a tad closer to Victor. I could see that she thought that Eric was a much scarier looking vampire than Victor was. It kind of made me laugh internally. In some respects, she was so wrong. Victor was rather disappointed that Eric had gotten here so early, I could see. I was thrilled however, and Eric could clearly pick up on that fact. On the one hand he was happy that I was so happy to see him. On the other, it made him think that Victor had been stressing me. He cut to the chase.

"So Victor, have you been behaving yourself?" Eric said with a raised eyebrow and firm voice.

"Of course, old sport. She hasn't scorched me and she only smashed me once." He grinned with those perfect fae teeth.

Polly looked very puzzled and Eric looked askance at me that I had done any smashing at all.

"_Later_," I said.

Eric looked at me wryly, leaned down and said close to my ear, "Oh, I've got my own 'later' for _you, _Lover…"

I felt a wave of cool from him when he said it and it made me wonder what that was about.

Victor seized this opportunity to dismiss Polly for the evening. She was very disappointed as she left to go home. Victor told her he might call her later and she brightened.

Victor led us to the library and offered Eric some True Blood or even a Royalty Blended. Eric said he'd just take a plain old O negative.

Mrs. Hodges appeared out of nowhere with the warm bottle, which she placed on a coaster on the coffee table in front of the couch. She looked over Eric with quite a bit of interest, but not in a rude way. Then she smiled and nodded to me and padded softly away.

Eric sat next to me on the couch, with his arm around me and kissed my temple. I felt lovely and warm with him near me. Being away from him for even a few days was always a strong reminder of how much his presence grounded me and made me happy. As long as I was with Eric, I was always home in my heart.

"So my Love, you said you'd tell me about your family." He brushed a loose bit of my hair behind my ear.

"I don't even know where to start. Eric, did you know that Niall's family started a campaign against Irish vampires?"

"I knew Niall was source of problems in Ireland. But there were also problems in England and in Scotland, as you've already heard from Declan. Niall and his clan fought in several battles there, as well. I know Niall has killed his share of vampires, and that where you stay in Ireland is 'vampire-free' in part because of Niall, and Declan's clan, but that's basically what I know about it. The Fae and vampires have fought all over, Sookie. Nothing new in that."

Victor, who was still standing, looked at me intensely. I could see he wanted to see if I was going to tell Eric what he had told me about himself when I told the rest of it. I'd find a skillful way to avoid that.

Eric picked up on the tension in Victor's manner and looked from Victor to me, and frowned slightly. "So why have you had to 'smash' Victor?"

I tried to think of how to explain it without it making Eric really, really mad. "He was having trouble dealing with my… requests."

"Your _requests_?" Eric looked over at Victor with narrowed eyes. He glanced back at me to see what I meant.

Victor smiled back at us. "Oh, no worries, Eric. I've got it now, knocking and all, simple stuff."

Eric looked at Victor sharply. "I thought I'd made myself clear, Victor." Eric was thinking very dark thoughts about Victor. It looked like the sword stuff was really _not_ a joke…

I took Eric's hand in mine. "It's fine, Eric. And I really don't think there will be further issues."

Eric gave Victor one long cold look as his arm tightened around me a bit.

Victor ignored the look and brightened up to say, "Would you like to see what I've been doing with the house? Russell just had the _worst_ taste. Killing him was one of the best things I've done. It was practically community service. Sorry to offend Sookie, but it's true…"


	6. Chapter 6

**Family**

A/N- Pronunciations: (most important bold) **Naoise (Nee-sha**, meaning lost, sometimes given as 'connection'), **Niall (Neil or Nye-all,** means champion but is also associated with cloud, or passionate), Noírín (Noreen, honor), Fionnula (Fin-o-la, fair or white shouldered), Mairéad (Mahr-ade, pearl), Eoín (Owen, God is gracious), **Saoirse (Seer-sha**, freedom),** Eithne (Ayt-na,** kernel or heart of the nut).

VI.

Victor spent the better part of an hour showing us around the house and showing us the grounds. I learned the furniture in the guestroom was not Victorian, but Georgian. Victor's room was epic, with wardrobes and a massive bed with curtains. I thought I got a glimpse from his mind of some kind of safe room behind one wall, but thought it impolitic (Oct 29) to ask. Meanwhile, I could sense that Eric was very puzzled about it all. _Where_ had Victor gotten all this stuff, I heard him wondering to himself? Even though all the rooms weren't finished, it was room after room of very expensive looking English antiques. Eric looked at me, but I was not able to be any help on the matter. I couldn't be, sadly, not without breaking Victor's trust. And then I caught a hint of something listening to Eric's thoughts as we walked out into the gardens. The guarantee… What had Eric meant when he said he could _guarantee_ that Victor would be behaving himself? He had something on Victor. Something… financial? As I stealthily traced my way through Eric's thoughts I found Eric knew something that could cause a lot of trouble. Victor wasn't paying Felipe the full 20% he owed.

I thought maybe Eric had the wrong idea from all the furniture but I quickly gathered from Victor's mind that it was really true. He was cheating Felipe. He was distracted talking about the house and didn't notice my creeping around in his head. Victor was even having people pay his renovators and landscapers directly, rather than have funds pass into his hands. I was aghast. I hadn't read the agreement that was signed by Felipe and Victor. Mr. Nikolaidis had offered to show it to me because I still did work for Felipe securing his interests. I hadn't had a chance to look at it before I left Madison. Did it specify cash revenues only? Felipe was very meticulous. If Victor was caught violating the agreement I could only imagine what Pythia could do to Victor. And _I_ had suggested this agreement to Felipe... Just thinking about it, I felt a ripple of panic. I stopped in the middle of the garden, while Victor was on his way to explaining about the removal of the old garage and stables and the plans for building a new stable, smaller garage, and a new pool house. Eric turned back to look at me all of the sudden.

"What's wrong?" asked Eric. Damn, he felt it, I thought to myself.

"Nothing," I said quickly shaking my head trying to disperse any feeling about the matter. But Eric knew me far too well. And he could feel that I felt something was very wrong. He turned his head at an angle and looked at me with narrowed eyes.

"Sookie? What's _wrong_?" said Eric firmly.

I had a strong sense of right and wrong. I had a strong sense of family. When the two conflicted, I was miserable. Felipe trusted me. I still worked for him and would see him for that work in just a few weeks. My job? To help prevent Felipe from being robbed and cheated. And _Victor_ was cheating him, after Felipe had been eager to settle, to make peace with an arrangement _I_ had suggested. And Eric knew about it? I didn't even know what to say to the two of them.

Victor walked back toward me and looked at me as if curious. "What is it, Sookie?"

I looked at him and just decided to go for it.

"Please tell me that you are _not_ cheating Felipe, Victor. Please," I said in a hushed voice.

He sort of snapped his head to the side so he wouldn't have to look at me. He ran his tongue over his teeth for a moment while he thought and then he turned back and said carefully, "What is _your_ idea of cheating?"

"Victor! Damn it, I _work_ for him. He trusts _me_ to make sure he _isn't_ cheated. Ooooh… ! You just make me _so_ mad!" My hand balled into fists. I turned on my heel and started walking back to the house.

Eric caught up with me. "Just settle down…"

I was so angry. I wheeled around to look up at him. "Settle down? You _knew_ about it and you said nothing? I work for Felipe in a position of trust trying to specifically _prevent_ people from stealing from him and Victor's my cousin! Felipe's your _King_, Eric! But you're trying to use the information against Victor for your own agenda? This is just fantastic! I congratulate _both_ of you," I said acidly.

I was so mad I could hardly think straight. Eric reached out to grab me angrily as I tried to keep walking and I just flamed up in my colors and spun around to give him a look that said 'back off'. Now _he_ was really mad. His fangs actually ran down and he glared at me.

"Don't you dare touch me, Eric. And don't you look at me like that, either. I'm mad and I want you both to leave me alone. I am so _sick _of shit with my family! And I don't expect it from you."

At that, Eric's eyes just glowed with anger as he tried reach for my arm again but I was not about to be grabbed by my angry vampire husband. Out of sheer frustration I just froze them both in place. It was as if I stopped the shuttle on the loom. I wanted time to cool off and think. I sat down on the nearest bench and tried to think of what to do. What were the terms of Victor's agreement with Felipe? I rose briefly and took Eric's cell phone out of his pocket. I sat back down and called Mr. Nikolaidis in New York. Demons never sleep. What about half-demons? It was just after midnight but an hour later in New York. Well, Mr. N. had told me "call me any time" when he said goodbye to me in Madison.

He sounded wide awake and actually seemed quite delighted to be hearing from me. After exchanging pleasantries and apologizing for the later hour of my call, I told him my call was personal. He said that was fine with him but warned me that Pythia might still know about anything that I asked him "because she's like that..." Well, I needed the information, so I'd have to risk it. I asked him about the terms of Victor and Felipe's agreement in carefully couched terms without mentioning any specific names. A hypothetical question, about agreements between two states. It turned out that in the haste to forge an agreement, Felipe had agreed to solely _cash_ revenues and had not specified the value of any revenues granted as intangibles or services offered to Mississippi. That was a bit of relief. Then I asked the important question. What if a person involved in a hypothetically similar agreement subverted the agreement by gaining revenue in the form of services, in order to deliberately underreport cash revenues? Mr. N. told me that much depended upon whether it was provable, assuming the person was even caught. _Wonderful._ _I_ was basically the person responsible for doing the catching in Felipe's world. Just great. I just felt this swell of frustration with Victor. I said thanks to Mr. N. and that I'd see him in a few weeks in New York for the summit. He said he'd look forward to it and then, with a chuckle, wished me the best of luck _with my cousin_.

I had absolutely no idea how much money Victor had been keeping off his books, but I was guessing it was easily about a hundred thousand dollars since August, from the scope of work he was doing on the house, and on the grounds. He was even demolishing buildings and planning new ones from what he'd just shown us. I didn't want to think where all that money was coming from, either, because Mississippi is a relatively poor state. He must be involved in something pretty illegal, there was just no two ways about it. But, no matter where the revenue stream was coming from, he was going to have to pay Felipe what he really owed, that much was clear to me. He had signed a binding agreement in his world. He had better abide by it or the consequences would be horrible. But Victor had already spent the money he owed Felipe. I was looking at it all over the grounds and inside the house. There was only one person I could think of with that kind of cash on hand to help him repay what was owed for the past three months. Niall. And Niall owed Victor, as far as I was concerned. Finding him a surrogate sire was not nearly enough payback for what had happened to Victor. And after keeping distant from Victor for several centuries, Niall had tried to press him into protecting me, as if I was the new and desirable family member. Victor had been put into a difficult situation between me and Felipe and he had no choice in the matter knowing Niall. Yes, Niall owed him, in my book. If Niall covered his present debt then I could try to get Victor to stick to the agreement in future. Though how I could do that I wasn't exactly sure.

Okay, I had something of a plan and I was finally calming down. I released Eric and he looked at me as if… well, let's just say he wasn't my biggest fan at the moment. I apologized for freezing him but reiterated that I was really upset at the time. As my reward I got the icy Nordic stare and silence. At least the fangs were no longer down. I returned his phone to him. He looked very puzzled as he checked the last dialed number. New York, not Nevada? I released Victor before he could ask about it, though. Victor really seemed relatively unperturbed. He just glanced over Eric to see what had been going on with him. Eric still looked mad. Then Victor just smiled back at me, eyes sparkling playfully.

"Sookie, come on, it's not all _that_ bad." He looked like his usual playful self again. Coasting on charm, indeed. Well, it wouldn't work with me...

Ignoring his chipper mood, I said firmly, "We're calling Niall. And you're paying Felipe back, Victor."

Victor looked confused by the correlation between the two. "I don't want to call Niall. And I certainly don't want to pay Felipe any more than I already am. It's my money and my state. I won it fair and square, Sookie." He looked rather incensed as he said the latter part. Like he was a child refusing to admit he'd cheated while playing Monopoly or something.

"No, Victor, you won by using someone else's resources behind their back and their financial assets to fund your venture. Felipe was being generous and you know it. He found out that we were cousins and that you were related to Niall. He was _trying_ to let you off easy, but recognized that you did have to have some consequences for your actions both for him to save face and to make sure you don't think you can go on getting away with this kind of shit you keep pulling. You can't go on playing these games and expect to get away with them. Pythia will not cut you even the slightest favor because you're related to Niall. She won't care that you're my cousin and I love you and don't want you staked or soaked in brine or wrapped in silver. She simply won't care. She has a job to do. If anything your relationship to Niall and to me gives her even more reason to make an example of you. Just because you have connections doesn't mean you can get away with anything. It's the opposite- you have to be even _more_ careful now. Your scheming has got to stop, Victor or the consequences will be horrible. You _have_ to stop!"

Victor seemed to consider this all carefully but I really didn't think he was convinced. He smirked. "Well, I still don't understand where Niall comes into the picture."

"Before I talk to Niall, I want the rest of the story, Victor. I want to know what it was that you weren't telling me. Because I know you were thinking about something worse than what you told me last night."

Victor seemed as if he was really straining to get the connections between Felipe and Niall… _What is she going on about? She's not going to tell Felipe I still owe him money, is she? And what does Niall have to do with any of this?_ he was thinking. "Why? What does one have to do with the other?"

"Trust me on this, Victor, I'll tell Felipe. But I need to know exactly what I'm dealing with where Niall is concerned. And you're going to tell me. You didn't tell me everything and I want no surprises." It was awkward because I couldn't discuss some of the stuff in front of Eric without betraying Victor's confidence. And I also didn't want to come out and tell him that I wanted Niall to give him the money. First, I had to get Niall to agree to it. And I suspected that it would not be an easy agreement to broker.

Victor paced around in agitation and then looked at me for a minute and apparently came to the conclusion that I wouldn't back down on either issue.

"Alright, fine. Fine. But we should go back to the house. You're going to need to sit down for this," Victor said. He grimaced at Eric as if to say that this was going to go over badly, really badly. Eric looked puzzled. Victor was always up to something and couldn't be trusted. But what could Victor possibly have on Niall, he wondered…

I turned and walked back to the house. As I passed Mrs. Hodges in the kitchen she reached out to me, handing me a gin and tonic. I smiled at her. She always knew.

I walked through the house and then sat on the comfortable couch in the library. In spite of the fact that Eric would probably have preferred to be having a very different conversation (namely the one in which he totally tells me off), he sat next to me and looked at Victor cautiously.

Victor looked extremely edgy again, similar to how he had looked before when talking about our family first time. But this time, there was more of a tinge of genuine regret in it. He looked at me as if he pretty much pitied me.

"Look Sookie, are you sure, _really_ sure, that you want to know all the gritty stuff? Because you already have the heart of what was going on with Niall and Fintan. And why the Brigant family has the reputation it does among vampires. What more do you really need?"

"Victor, I still don't understand why Fintan forbade Niall to see me, Jason, and my cousin Hadley. Niall told me that Fintan wouldn't let him. I've actually heard his thoughts lamenting the fact that he didn't ignore Fintan's wishes toward the end of his life. I want to know _why_ Fintan would do such an odd thing. It has to be something serious. If Niall did something bad to us, I should know about it now, not later."

I took a sip of my gin and tonic and waited for Victor to tell me. He looked as if he was struggling with what to do or say. He looked at Eric, who was little help. Eric just put up his hands as if to say he wanted nothing to do with it and it was Victor's call.

Victor sighed. "Alright, Sookie. I suppose you really do have a right to know. I can give you the truth, as much as I know it. But you're not going to be happy… And I don't even know all of it, either. But if you want info on why Fintan wanted Niall to stay away from all of you, I can tell you a part of it. For the record, Niall didn't 'do anything' to your family, so far as I know, okay?"

He sat on the edge of the coffee table and looked me in the eyes.

"You remember that Niall and Naoise were fighting. And that Fintan killed Naoise's son Eoin in self-defense and then left for America?"

I nodded slowly. I rolled my lips in and bit down on them. I had a feeling like a chill settling in somewhere deep inside me, all around my heart.

"Naoise had kind of snapped, as I said. He became very irrational. I guess it was like a mental illness or something. First he lost Mairéad, then Eoin. He was even worse after Eoin. He loved his children very much. He really became bent on revenge against Niall and especially Fintan. Eoín was his only son. So…" he looked at me like he really didn't want to spit out the details.

I am just so dense at times.

"So?" I insisted questioningly.

I felt Eric stiffen. And then it hit me, like a blow upon a bruise.

My eyes met Victor's but I felt like I was shrinking internally from what he was saying. I just felt cold inside.

"You remember I told you that Fintan was something of a ladies man. Well, Fintan had three sons, Sookie. Two in Ireland… and then…" Victor looked at me as if he was so sorry he was the one delivering the news.

He couldn't be serious. It couldn't be true. Surely I was misunderstanding him.

"But Victor, my parents died in a flash flood. They died together. In a flood. When I was seven." My voice was getting tight and my heart just started racing.

Funny thing about that flood. No one else was caught in it and no one could quite figure it out how the river had swelled up to wash the car off the bridge. I started breathing heavily, almost gasping. I remembered looking at the newspaper article on microfilm when I was thirteen in the Bon Temps Public Library. The investigation was closed but the police had been puzzled. The detective interviewed said it didn't make any sense. And there hadn't been any other floods that spring.

Victor leaned forward from the coffee table and put his hand on mine. He was just quiet now.

Finally, I said in a whisper, "So you're telling me that Naoise killed _all_ of Fintan's sons as revenge for Eoín's death?"

Eric picked up my other hand and looked away.

Victor said softly, "Yes, Sookie. All. Your father Corbett was the last. Niall has been worried that you would find out. He specifically told me about it because I already knew that Naoise had killed the other two sons Ireland from Fionnula. You were not to know. I guess when Naoise found out Fintan had a new family here in the States he just went after them here. His only other child, Nóirín died about twenty five years ago. I guess it just started the whole thing up again for him. I think he was very ill in his mind. A dangerous thing when you can do magic."

Could it really be true? My mother and father. Killed by my great-great uncle in a fit of magical vengeance? Naoise had killed my father, and perhaps accidentally got my mother, too? I tried to process it and just couldn't wrap my head around it. My Fae family had killed my parents. It couldn't be true. I… didn't want it to be true. But I knew Victor was telling me the truth. I could see it was true. I felt tears start to roll down my cheeks. I just couldn't speak. Eric stroked my hand with his thumb soothingly.

So Niall knew that his fighting with his brother had ultimately caused my parents deaths. And he hadn't told me. Fintan had wanted to keep them all away. Had he made Niall stay away from us in hopes that no further harm would come to us? As soon as he died, Niall showed up. Too late for Hadley. But on time to get involved with my life. But he started interfering with my life, using magic on me to make me sleep with some strange fae man, arguing with and even beating on Eric… Sure, he'd done things to keep me safe like providing Britlingens and getting Victor to help protect me. He'd discovered my mother's heritage. My poor murdered mother… He'd sent me to Eithne. But all the while, he'd lied to me. About something completely fundamental to our relationship and our family history.

"Is Naoise still alive?" I asked Victor.

He hesitated. "Yes, as far as I know. I haven't heard anything about him in about five years, though. I haven't been keen on asking Niall about him because of the way he gets with me." Victor looked worried as he met my eyes.

"So Naoise would be one of the enemies that Niall occasionally mentions?"

"Yes, Sookie, I guess in a manner of speaking. I mean there are others but… It's true that Naoise and Niall were still fighting the last I knew." He looked at me as if he was worried about what he may have done by telling me. Like he could have just made things much worse. "You… you wouldn't do anything… crazy, now would you?"

I looked at him, squinting. What did he mean? Could he honestly think I would perpetuate the whole thing? I really had a hard time believing I was a member of this family. I just didn't think like them at all.

"I want to talk to Niall. I just want him to tell me the truth. That his brother killed my parents because Fintan killed his brother's son."

"Well, when you're not so upset…" Victor said.

"No. Tonight. Now. I want him to explain it to me _now_. And I have to talk to him about something else anyway. So now's the time." I tried to reach for Eric's cell phone in his pants' pocket.

"Sookie, maybe it's really better to wait until you're less upset," said Eric softly.

"No. Give me your phone. Please," I insisted. "I want to talk to him. I needed to ask him for something anyway."

He handed me his phone but looked as if he was trying to think of a way to talk me out of it. "Sookie, I really don't think…."

I dialed Niall's number and pressed send. The delightful magical answering service informed me yet again that Niall was presently unavailable. They could give no date for his return. He just didn't want to talk to me. He knew I could take pretty good care of myself now, and he had heard no warnings or concerns from Claudine. I had been spending time with Eithne, Pythia and had even met Declan. The odds were steadily increasing that I would find out. I had told Claudine I wanted answers and she'd squirmed. She told NiallI was asking too many questions I realized now. It was only a matter of time until I knew and he just didn't want to deal with it.

I looked at Victor. "You call him."

"_Me_? Why should _I_ call him?"

"I'm sure he's not taking calls from me because he thinks I'm trying to find out, or I that _have_ found out. You call him. See if he'll call you back. It's in your interest to get a hold of him."

"I don't know, Sookie… I don't see how it's in my interest when I really think it's very likely he'll try to kill me. And I'm _not_ being dramatic here. He told me I wasn't allowed to tell you anything and I turned around and told you _everything_, including all the very worst bits. He was mad enough when I just bruised your wrist. This is a many orders of magnitude worse than that."

"I won't let him hurt you, Victor. He won't even touch you. I promise you. I give you my word. I'll keep you safe from him." I looked him in the eyes as I said it.

Now Eric was upset. "Sookie, you can't seriously mean that you'd get into a fight with Niall over Victor? Are you _crazy_? I just don't think you should do this right now. I think it's a bad idea." I could tell he was extremely worried about all the drain on my energies if I got into a real fight with Niall. But did he really think I would get into an _actual _fight with my own great-grandfather? He had to be kidding. It would be nice if he could give me credit for being able to finesse things a bit better than that.

"Now is the best time because Victor and I are together. It's safer. You always want me to trust you, well you trust me, Eric. Victor, call him. See if he'll call _you_ back."

Victor called and left a message. Within five minutes Niall returned the call.


	7. Chapter 7

**Family**

VII.

Victor handed me his phone after answering it. His eyes were wide.

"Grandfather, is there a specific reason you would be refusing my calls?"

Niall was silent on the other end.

"I want to see you immediately. Would you please you come?"

"Sookie, child, you sound upset." He was not happy…

"Upset does not even _begin_ to scratch the surface of it. But I want to see you. As soon as possible."

"I'm afraid that just now is not convenient. Perhaps I could visit you next week?"

No, no you can't… I thought to myself.

"I really would like to do speak with you right now. In person."

"I am sorry but I'm not sure what could be so urgent. It's not convenient to come right now."

I had _had_ it.

I tensed and my fingers flared out. From somewhere deep inside I spoke Word and summoned him. As in _Summoned_.

Within seconds, Niall popped into the library. He was in pajamas and a robe and looked very disheveled from the summoning. I didn't even let him get in a word of protest. He seemed very startled that I had managed to summon him. He'd had no chance to resist because it was totally unexpected. He was not pleased. Victor bounced back toward the wall and looked at me as if in shock.

"Grandfather, you're joining me outside."

I took his arm in mine and walked with him through the house and out into the back garden. Eric and Victor had nervously followed several meters behind us. On the outside chance that Niall lost his temper, we were not damaging Victor's newly renovated house because he was not going to be able to afford to fix it again any time soon, I thought to myself.

I walked with Niall fairly far away from the house, away from Eric and Victor. When they started walking toward us, I just pinned them in a web of energy. I wanted them far enough away so that Niall and I could talk without them being involved. Niall looked at them, then back at me and suddenly understood.

"What has Victor told you?" he said with his eyes flashing angrily.

"_Everything._"

I could hear Niall thinking of what he was going to do to Victor for disobeying his wishes…

"Grandfather, you will do nothing to Victor." I shook my head. "_Nothing._ Victor is family. And we have already had enough fighting in our family."

"I don't know what Victor has told you, child…"

I cut him off. "He told me everything. He told me about Dermot and Conor. About the killing of vampires in Ireland. About Devin Lóman turning him. He told me about Naoise and Mairéad and Eoin. And finally he told me about Naoise killing my parents. Were you just going to go on lying to me forever?"

Niall was terribly angry. "I did _not_ lie to you, Sookie," he hissed.

"You lied to me every time you didn't tell me the plain truth when I asked about our family. You lied by omission. Don't you tell me you didn't. You did and you know it."

"I was trying to protect you. To protect you from… the ugly side of our family's history. I was only trying to protect you from the pain of knowing. _I did not lie_."

"Protect me? Then you obviously barely know me Grandfather. If you knew me at all you would know I prefer an ugly truth to a shiny lie. But before we get carried away with that, it's not really why I wanted to see you. I need a promise and a favor from you. You always offering to do things for me, right? I suppose it was trying to ease that guilty family conscience? Well, I have this one thing… it _is_ a big favor."

Niall looked increasingly dark and angry. He was not used to being told what to do or having demands made on him. And I'd called him a liar. His hair was starting to swirl around as energy picked up inside him. I was familiar with the feeling. I pressed on, disregarding his anger.

"First, you will promise me that neither you, nor anyone on behalf of you, will harm Victor."

He gazed down at me with his green eyes just sparking with steely anger. "I will give you no such promise nor do you have any business trying to extract anything such thing from ME! He _disobeyed_ me," he said thunderously.

I was not cowed by his manner. My own anger started to get the better of me and I felt my colors start to rise, the Morrígan crescent shining bright on my forehead. My voice came out booming.

"I have _every_ right to ask it of you! My parents are dead because of you, Dermot and Fintan. Victor's life was all but destroyed because of you. _He is not in your service_. You rejected him and now you can't dare to command him to do your bidding as if he was still yours. He told me the truth you would not and you have _no right_ to harm him for it!" I could hear that Niall was thinking of options to just shut me up and make me behave. Not gentle options. "You do not want to get into any fight with me, Grandfather, because you will _lose_. Think carefully before you even try to start a fight with me. A fight is _not_ your solution. I am only asking you to agree to two simple things. You will not harm Victor and as a favor to me you will pay his present debt to Felipe de Castro."

The longer I'd spoken, the brighter I shone, and the darker and more malevolent looking I felt myself getting. By the end, the light emanating from me was brighter than he was and I was practically blue with anger. My hair swirled around me as his did around him. I knew I must have looked fierce because he began to look at me with surprise in his eyes. But he was so angry at my words that he just reacted, gesturing a bolt of energy toward me, which I deflected back toward him without even flinching. He was surprised. And I was surprised that he would even dare. I doubt he would have done such a thing with Eithne or any other of the Tuatha Dé. He looked at me more tentatively but then suddenly tried a lightning slam at me, the way he had at Eric many months ago. As the bolt cast toward me I could feel Eric struggling in the web of energy, so worried that Niall could hurt me. The thunder from his strike dissipated strangely. I had gathered the energy up and held Niall in the reflected stream of his energy and wove us back to just moments before he tried to strike, leaving the wake of our shift back floating through the air like ripples from a pebble dropped into a pool of water. Niall felt the wake and then his eyes widened. He was very still as he met my eyes.

What startled me was that I was instinctively weaving off of the energy he was trying to use _on me_. It was effortless. Why tire myself if he could supply the energy? While this wasn't a fight in my book, it appeared that fighting with a fairy could be a lot easier than with a vampire. Magical energy was easier to redirect than physical energy, which required more of my own effort.

"You _weave_, Sookie?" he said, sounding extremely startled. He glanced back in Eric and Victor's direction and seemed to note I also weave even when using energy to hold others in place. He finally seemed to be getting the picture.

"Oh yes, I weave. And I will weave us back again and again until you agree to what I want. _You will not harm him._ And my favor- that you will pay his debt, this _one_ time. It's the only favor I'll _ever_ ask of you."

"Surely you want something for yourself?" he asked bitterly.

"I'd appreciate your apology. Because you _did_ lie. That is all I want from you for myself. I wanted the truth. That's all I ever wanted. Now…" I took a step closer to him and looked up into his eyes knowing my own were fierce and wild. "_Your word for Victor_."

Niall looked down at me as if he had never really quite seen me before. I could hear his surprised thoughts racing through his mind. I was much stronger than he had foreseen. He had seen only one who could weave so effortlessly in his lifetime and that was Declan. It amazed him to think that his fragile, mostly human granddaughter could have come by such a gift. Eithne had been right, I heard him say to himself. He should have just told me before. How would he ever fix this now? And had he really stooped to try to fight his own granddaughter? A mere slip of a girl, in his eyes? It was beneath him. He had lost his temper, too, in front of Eric and Victor. And I wanted nothing from him for myself, other than the one thing that would be hardest for him to give- the admission that he had done wrong by me. He just couldn't bring himself to do it, so he did the other thing.

He said, soberly, "You have my word I will not harm Victor nor have anyone else bring him harm. I will pay his debt this once."

I nodded my head in agreement. "Thank you Grandfather. You can apologize to me whenever you are ready. Please don't come calling until you have. I'm sorry to have disturbed you so suddenly. I release you," I said with a wave of my hand. Pale blue vapor streamed away from him.

He looked sort of stunned. I turned away from him and walked back to Eric and Victor, releasing them from the pale violet web of energy as I passed them. I took Eric's hand and walked back into the house, with Victor following behind us. Victor turned back to look at Niall out in the garden several times.

I sat down at the kitchen table and breathed heavily. My unfinished gin and tonic had been moved there. I took a long sip of it. I thought about Niall. I couldn't believe that he had tried to use magic on me, that he was angry enough to have risked hurting me. This family was really something. _It's a wonder any of them are left_, I thought to myself. But I had outmaneuvered him in a way that no one could get hurt. Eithne would be proud of me.

I turned to look up at Victor who was standing nearby looking down at me with no small amount of amazement. I could tell he simply could not believe that I'd argued with Niall and won. In his mind it was almost inconceivable.

"What was that that you did?" he asked. "It was like you shifted around. The two of you became all murky. What… is that?"

"Weaving. A subject for another time. Victor, our Grandfather is going to cover your debt for the months of August through October this one time. I'll be going to Vegas in less than two weeks. I'll be telling Felipe that you cheated him, but that I caught you at it and set things right. And that you_ will not_ be doing it ever again. I'll deliver the recovered funds to him personally. I would strongly suggest that you make the effort to get an accurate tally of what you really owe him, because I'm sure after my little revelation, he'll have you audited, including looking into all the work that's going into your property. Our Grandfather has also given me his word that he will not harm you and that he will not get anyone else to, either. The debt you owe me for all this is that you will follow every letter of your agreement with Felipe. However you're getting all the money, you're giving him his full 20% from now on. _Are we clear on this point?_" I looked directly into his eyes. He just nodded silently. He didn't look happy about it though. "Cross me again on this and I will not help you further in any way. Do we understand each other?"

Then he looked at me with an odd expression and nodded saying, "Thank you, Sookie," almost in a whisper.

I really hoped he meant it, but I wasn't feeling hopeful enough to go check that out in his mind. And who knows, as Eric had always pointed out, Victor's commitment to an agreement could change at any moment. I might have gone to a lot of trouble for nothing. But I had to try to put things right with Felipe. Victor wasn't just messing with his own reputation, he was impacting mine.

I rose and took the glass to the sink, poured out the rest and washed it and set it aside to dry. A tabby cat stood in the corner swishing her tail, disapprovingly.

I turned to Eric and said, "I'm going upstairs. I want to rest. Good night, Victor."

Eric put his arm around me as I went upstairs and didn't say a word. He was still angry but seemed to be tempering it, while whirring internally with the revelations about my family and the fact that I'd taken on Niall and won without any violence. That last part seemed to have really impressed him but he was wondering about the outcome of the whole situation, worried that Niall was going to have it in for us because he tended to be so aggressive and now I'd been the object of some of it at last.

Once upstairs I sat on the edge of the bed. I sank into thinking about my parents, Naoise, the whole family. Eric tuned into my sadness and sat next to me, first just holding my hand. With his touch, the tears started streaming down my face again. I didn't hate Niall. But I hated his lies and all the things he had done. I pitied but was still angry at Naoise, who used his grief as a justification for such terrible cruelty. Maybe he was mentally ill, like Victor suggested. Did that excuse what he had done? But for now… for now, I cried for my parents who were swept up and away in a fight that was hundreds of years old, about which they knew nothing, and for which they were simply the end of a long trail of vengeance.

I remembered a long time ago in Sunday school thinking about the quote from the Book of John, that the truth would set you free. I guess Niall was free of the burden now. And me? Well, I had the truth, but there was no comfort in it. I just cried, while Eric held me, finally rocking me softly, whispering comfort into my ear.


	8. Chapter 8

**Family**

VIII.

I awoke late in the morning, still wrapped in Eric's arms. After shifting Eric flat and smoothing out his hair, I kissed him, and covered him with the blankets just in case, because the business of using the blackout curtains over the window and door still made me pretty edgy. After changing into dark gray slacks and a soft lavender long-sleeved shirt, I put on one of my gray wraps I'd made in Ireland. My handwoven wraps always made me feel more secure. Slipping on my black flats, I headed out of the room. I locked the door with the key that Victor had given us but I put a field of energy around the room just in case. If I didn't stray too far from the house I was pretty sure I could keep it up all day. I just didn't feel safe leaving Eric sleeping alone even in a locked room where anyone could whisk open a curtain if they got in. There were workmen in the house. I wonder what Victor did with his other vampire guests. Maybe it was just because Eric was with me and Victor had other rooms or even coffins for vampires. Once the field was up I felt better, though. I had to recommend Amelia to Victor as a way to ward the rooms for his guests' safety.

I went downstairs to the kitchen and found Mrs. Hodges reading a well-worn copy of _Mansfield Park_ today. There was a hot, steaming bowl of Irish oatmeal on the table, along with a bowl of fruit, and a steaming cup of coffee. The oatmeal was like the rich oatmeal I had at home in Eithne's cottage. Mrs. Hodges was really amazing. It was as if she read your mind about what you wanted to eat or drink and what she thought you needed and merged them together. A blast of Ireland was just what I needed.

"I hope you are well this morning Mrs. Northman? This letter arrived while you were asleep. I've been given some trouble to make sure that you receive it rather than my handing it over to Mr. Victor, in spite of the fact that it was so clearly addressed to _you_."

She eagerly placed the letter, which was in heavy buff stationery, with the wax seal stamped with a unicorn, into my hands. As she did so a wisp of something dissolved visibly away into the air. Magicked to my hands, it seemed. She seemed very glad to be rid of it.

"Mrs. Hodges, you should feel free to call me Sookie."

She looked at me as if that was not going to happen any time soon. I set the letter aside and decided to eat breakfast first. Mrs. Hodges sat with me, making pleasant conversation.

"So Mrs. Hodges, do you still have family in Cornwall? My grandmother's family was from Cornwall and Somerset. I've heard Cornwall is very beautiful."

"My sister, Mrs. Wickes, is still there, although she may be looking for a new position. She's younger than me. Very good cook and gardener, though, if I do say so. Perhaps you would be interested? Mr. Victor knows her."

I just smiled. Although the thought of having a korrígan to motivate me to eat and help in a garden was tempting, I wasn't sure that I wanted a second direct family connection to Victor's household. Besides, the whole thought of a housekeeper was odd to me, anyway.

"I'll keep her in mind Mrs. Hodges. But our home is really very modest compared to Victor's. She'd likely be bored. So when did this letter arrive?"

"Mr. Brigant delivered it shortly after you had all gone upstairs. I believe you were already asleep."

"He delivered it _personally_?" That was surprising.

"Yes." She said this dryly, as if he had been a real pill about it, too.

I looked at the addressee on the letter. _Sookie Northman_ in handwritten fancy script. He was trying to be nice by using my married name, I thought. I tried to be open enough to think about the fact that he must have changed somewhat in the past three hundred years, since he didn't interfere with my marrying Eric and had instead let me follow my heart and further bind myself to him. Even crediting him with his evolving morals, I couldn't get past the fact that he had lied about my parents death.

When I was done eating, I gathered up the bowls and cup but Mrs. Hodges deftly removed them from my hands before I could make it to the sink with them. I sighed, said thank you again, and walked out thru the garden door to sit outside and read Niall's letter. I pulled up the sealed flap and took out the handwritten note, which was on heavy writing paper.

_My Dearest Child,_

_I find myself in the rather awkward position of trying to explain myself and apologize without being able to speak with you in person. I wish to assure you that my only intention has been to protect you from the painful legacy of our family history. I would very much like to discuss with you the revelations as to our family that you have heard from Victor. Sadly, due to Victor's misfortune, much of his perspective is colored by his present nature. Please contact me when you feel that you are able to speak with me about our family._

_Your Great-Grandfather,_

_Niall Brigant  
_

This was an apology? No siree. Not to me it wasn't. Just because the word apologize was in the note did not mean one had been made. No, the sought after words, _I'm so sorry my brother killed your parents and I didn't mention it to you_, were not in this note. And Niall still seemed very accusatory toward Victor, as if somehow Victor had the facts or their interpretation wrong. This wasn't doing it for me, not by a long shot. I'd have to show it to Eric when he woke up. Maybe royal people just didn't feel like they needed to apologize for anything? Then I remembered that Sophie-Anne made Andre apologize to me and then she apologized to me, too, on top of it. And hadn't Victor apologized for his inappropriate behavior to me? And I'd be willing to bet that Victor had seldom apologized ever in his vampire life. Yes, it was possible for people to apologize, even if they were very powerful. But of course, vampires are not 'born' royal. Clearly Niall felt he was above it all.

I sat brooding about the whole thing. Was I wasting my emotional energy being upset about things that had happened more than twenty years ago? My parents were gone and I had accepted that long ago. Maybe what really had me upset was the past two years, since I'd met Niall. What had I expected from him, I asked myself? Hadn't I already had ample evidence that he just didn't think the way I did? That he didn't want to tell me things he thought would just upset me? I thought back to the hapless event that had brought me firmly to Eric's side and how Eric had to all but force Niall to tell me what he had done trying to use magic on me. Now I even wondered if that was some kind of malevolent plan on his part to see if he could glamour me away from Eric or something. But I didn't really think so. He let me bind myself even more tightly to Eric. He knew how much I loved Eric. I still trusted Claudine and even Claude. And in spite of all the reasons I shouldn't, I trusted Victor. But not Niall. Not right now. I was still pretty skeptical about Niall's overall intentions.

Polly found me out in the garden. She was wearing an emerald green sweater with an asymmetric neckline and black slacks today. The first thing I noticed was that the bite wound on her neck had been healed. She seemed different today, she even moved slightly differently. It was as if she suddenly wasn't as sure of herself. As I watched her draw closer I came to realize that she had been glammed. Oh my.

"Good day, Sookie. Mr. Madden had a few more employees that he wished you to check out for him today. I thought we could go into town and you could be introduced."

_Mr._ Madden. Well, Victor's choice was clear. He'd glammed all memory of their months long relationship out of her and healed up any bite wounds just to keep her working for him. But she still liked him. A _lot_. I felt so sorry for her. And what would happen if he slipped and they ended right back were they were before? Because I could see it happening. He really liked her more than he wanted to admit to himself. Well, it was his problem. My problem was that I was not leaving this house and leaving Eric alone in that room upstairs with only Mrs. Hodges to keep watch.

"Polly, I'm sorry but I'm not going out to work today. It's the weekend. I'm sure if there are any other employees that they can venture here so that I can meet them. I'm sorry if this makes things harder for you. But I'm sticking to the house today."

Polly pursed her lips. There was something she didn't like about me, but she just couldn't quite remember what it was. I smiled at her trying to make it clear I wasn't trying to be difficult. She was struggling to figure out something that she had forgotten. I actually thought it was very interesting that she could even see that she was forgetting something. She was so much stronger than Victor was crediting her to be. She stood there sifting through her thoughts and I really almost got the feeling that she could throw off the glamour if she tried hard enough. Then she drew a deep breath as if giving up on it and moving on. She had to stick to business she thought, and she'd work through this confusion later on her own.

"I will see what I can arrange. This wasn't how Mr. Madden wished things to be conducted today." She looked as if she thought I was really being difficult on purpose.

_And aren't you sassy to his guest_, I thought to myself with a chuckle. But I said, "I am sure _Mr._ Madden will recover from the setback, Polly. He always does."

With that, I rose and went back upstairs.

I showered and dried my hair, and then settled down in the armchair to reread Niall's note. It was infuriating. I set it on the nightstand where Eric had his phone so he could read it on the outside chance I wasn't in the room when he woke up. I peeked under the covers and kissed Eric's nose. I hoped he wouldn't still be mad at me when he woke up.

The workman downstairs in the living room were creating a racket. They were resurfacing the wooden flooring and doing something with the moldings around the ceiling. Vampires were lucky that they could sleep through everything because I could barely concentrate to read. I resealed the room and went downstairs. I told Mrs. Hodges that if Polly came looking for me that I would be out in the back gardens. I took my book outside and sat on a lounge chair out on the grass, reading for more than an hour before Polly, looking quite huffy, found me and asked me to come inside to meet several more people. I was sure it would all be the same. Whoever was causing Victor concern must be among the guests tonight at his Sunday midnight fête. They had to be vampires. As I walked with her back to the house I thought to myself how odd it was that the house was so empty compared to my memories of it in Russell's day, when it had been jammed with willing young men. Not even willing women, other than Polly, here now. Victor really was a very different sort of vampire from Russell, I thought to myself. It was peaceful and quiet here. I had never been to Devon, but I had a feeling that he was attempting to recreate the solitude of a place in which he had found peace. My experience with vampires was that peace was always fleeting, however.

**

* * *

  
**

By the time I was done chatting with Victor's remaining human and Were employees it was 4:45 pm. I went back upstairs. Mrs. Hodges sent me up with a cup of Earl Grey tea and a cranberry scone that made the ones they have a Starbucks seem like they were cardboard. I had a series of text messages on my cellphone from Zelda. It seemed like Pythia had already picked up on the fact that I knew about the family stuff and was sending condolences through Zelda. She said she'd talk to me about it when we met in NYC and hoped that I wasn't too upset. She also seemed to know that I'd been talking to Mr. Nikolaidis and that I was staying with Victor. Well, the cat was going to be out of the bag… If Pythia didn't already know, I'd say it was about another five minutes until she figured out that I thought Victor was violating his agreement with Felipe. My happy family…

I finished my scone and then brushed my teeth. Having had barely five hours of sleep, I crawled back into bed with Eric and took a nap.

I awoke some indeterminate time later because I was being kissed. Heavenly. Eric gently kissed my eyes, lips, ears, and throat then moved lower and lower. The promise of this spectacular awakening from my nap was cruelly interrupted only minutes later when Eric stopped cold at a… very intense moment. He rolled us, still entangled, onto our sides and then propped himself up on his elbow and rested his head on his hand and smiled at me. A very mischievous smile. It was a singularly awkward moment to… take a break.

"What are you doing? Why did you stop?" I thrust my hips against his.

"Now that I have your full attention, I was thinking we could talk."

"You have _got_ to be kidding. Eric… !?"

"I assure you, I am not kidding you," he said in a low voice.

"Later. We'll talk... _later_." I pouted. Suddenly, my nap was ending _so_ badly…

He was trying to be playful but I knew Eric better than that. This was Eric's thing. Pillow talk. He was convinced he could get me to listen to reason better when we were alone, naked, entangled, in bed. All because he had convinced me we should get married in bed. And a few other things. Well, he had a point. It was very _annoying_, however.

"We're talking _now_ Mrs. Northman, and you're going to listen to me, instead of grabbing a few things on the fly and making assumptions." He brushed some hair out of my face and then traced my lips with his index finger as he said 'assumptions'.

Then he really did have my attention. "What's _that _supposed to mean?"

"It's supposed to mean that if you _had_ settled down last night, and thought to delve a little deeper, you would know that Felipe already knows your charming cousin is cheating him and that I found out he was cheating him from Alcide Herveaux, who was paid in full a month ago, for a new survey of this very property, by one of Victor's debtors and who then found out that some of the Jackson Weres working on Victor's property have been paid the same way. You would know that Felipe knows we're here this weekend and was trusting that you'd get to the bottom of it and try to get it sorted before he has to wrap your cousin in a silver blanket and sink him to the bottom of Lake Tahoe for a few centuries. And you would know I didn't tell you because I only found out for sure on Thursday night, after Alcide had checked and double checked his information so that he wouldn't be making another sad mistake and so I'd give him back ten percent on what he's paying me for providing this very useful information that would curry favor with my King. And that I also didn't tell you earlier because I didn't think when you were talking to him about your family, that telling him that you knew he was a lying, cheating bastard was wise, since it might shut down the information pipeline prematurely. And because my telling Victor I had serious dirt on him made it more likely that he would be pleasant and appropriate with you instead of being his usual salivating self with _my_ bonded partner."

"Mmmmm. I see your point… I guess I missed a few things there. I can see why you were so upset then…"

He thrust farther into me gently, playfully further emphasizing his point. "Just flying off the handle, not waiting to hear me out. Wouldn't even touch me to get a better feel for the situation. Oh no. Ready to fight with your grandfather over fucking _Victor_, who is hardly worth the blood that made him. And telling _me_ off in front of _him_?"

"Eric, Victor's really been wronged, okay? By my family. The whole story of how he was made is just awful. Just… take my word for it. And he was worth fighting for to me."

"Lover, you can be wronged but after a few centuries you should really get over it and move on, don't you think? If Victor's continuing to justify his choices with his sad 'made vampire' story, whatever it was, then you can only get by for so long on that. Everyone older than the last few decades probably has their own sad story and we don't all go around doing a tenth of the shit that Victor does. Do I? No. But you've bailed him out again, and don't think that Felipe didn't tell me that you helped bail him out in Madison too, with the idea of claiming a portion of his revenues as opposed to letting the Pythoness deal with him. I just hope that you'll eventually see the lay of the land. And now, we can move onto our next subject, which is much more upsetting, at least to me. Tray Dawson's new business location. What would you like to tell me about that, Lover?" He looked at me with his jaw set tight but his long fingers were deftly stroking up and down my side around my waist and hips.

Okay, I guess I was officially having a _really_ bad evening.

"Um, what did you want to know?" I said nervously. I squirmed a bit because the stroking tickled and because I was in deep trouble.

"I was thinking it might be nice to know why you gave Amelia fifteen thousand dollars which she then gave to Tray to move his business to a warehouse space in Bon Temps?"

"I loaned her the money, I didn't _give_ her the money. That would be a lot of money to just give someone."

"It's a lot of money to loan someone behind your husband's back, too."

I bit my lip. This was not going to be pretty. "It was the remainder of my money from Madison."

"I seem to recall your fondness for reminding me that Louisiana is a community property state. You loaned her _our_ money. I don't recall having a conversation in which you said you were going to bankroll Dawson's move? I really don't. And now I hold a lease on an empty building."

"Oh, well actually I was thinking we could rent it to JB du Rone, my friend Tara's husband. He's planning to open an equipment rental company and he inquired about the space when I was working at Merlotte's. He didn't seem to think the monthly rent was too high because the location is so good. So when we get back, we can try to firm that up. He said he'd take it as soon as Tray was out. JB would be a good tenant for that property, Eric. They're good business people, Tara and JB. Bill rents Tara space for her clothing boutique, remember?"

"And the reason I hadn't heard anything about your loan to Amelia was…?"

Now I was worried… How did he find out about this? Was Amelia okay? "How did you even find out I loaned Amelia money?"

"Pam glammed her because she wouldn't cooperate. Torture seemed rather inappropriate given that she's your _friend_ and all." He said this with a raised eyebrow as if picking up on my worry. "Dawson said he got the money to move from Amelia. It seemed very sudden. So Pam just glammed her and we found out the funds were from you. Imagine my surprise… Then again, I'd known for days that you were up to something. I could tell. I could feel it. Did you really think you could get away with feeling guilty and _not_ have me notice?"

"Eric, look at it realistically. You were _really_ mad at Alcide. Alcide was insulting to you and he went after you when you were down, so to speak. You've always been more upset with Alcide than with Tray. Tray didn't do anything to you. He didn't _intend_ to do anything to me. I didn't want Tray to lose his business over a moment of bad judgment and if you're skimming his profits, you shouldn't want him to go out of business, either. And I already have another tenant lined up for you for the rental space. You should be happy."

"I should be happy that you go around behind my back and give money back to someone I'm penalizing? Really? Happy is not the word that comes to my mind. Angry? Exasperated? Or maybe just _disappointed_?" He glowered at me.

_Ouch._ "I'm sorry Eric. I just didn't think that after only two weeks that you'd be willing to talk about it reasonably, okay? And Tray's situation was really bad. It's better for Tray to keep working. He's still going to pay you, right? What purpose would it serve for Tray to have to close up shop? This way you get the rent for the better space from JB, and Tray continues to work. So yes, you should be happy with that. All's well that ends well."

Eric just shook his head. "I knew you were going to try to get this whole thing worked your way. I just didn't think that you'd be _sly_ about it. It's not about the money, Sookie, and you know that. It was about respect."

"And you know that Amelia and Tray respect you a great deal and they did before this all happened. So what's it really about then? Revenge? Don't tell me I'm wrong for wanting to make something right, okay? But I'm willing to admit I was sly, and I'm sorry about that part of it. But what you were doing to Tray wasn't right either Eric. He didn't set out to cause either one of us a problem. A moment of bad judgment shouldn't cost the man his livelihood. That's just wrong."

"And the reason you didn't have this conversation with me before?"

"I was… I was wrong to do it this way. I admit it, okay? I just felt like I couldn't talk to you about it and he was going to have to close. He had already laid off his other mechanic. I just… frankly, I just didn't think you'd listen. I planned to tell you when I got back to Shreveport and I thought I could just talk you into it after the fact. Sort of."

He rolled back on top of me and gently pinned my hands on either side of my head. He looked me in the eyes and I drew a deep breath. He lay on top of me, staring at me until I just shivered. Eric could be so intense...

"I want your word you won't do _anything_ like this again, Sookie. This is serious to me." I could tell the part about doing it behind his back was what really bothered him. It had really bothered me, too. It had weighed on my conscience for days now. I'd never done anything like this before.

"I promise," I said sincerely. I lifted my head and kissed him. I felt a wave of tension from him dissipate.

"You will talk to me before doing anything even remotely similar…"

I smiled flirtatiously, looking into his eyes. "Mmmm Hmmmm. I promise."

In spite of the seriousness of the moment he smiled and shook his head.

"You really think you could talk me into just about anything, don't you?" he said, his eyes sparkling.

"Well, I'm only interested in talking you into one thing right now."


	9. Chapter 9

**Family**

IX.

After a quick shower, we started to change for the evening. I opened the garment bag brought for my dress to find… a mistake. The dress in the bag was of a beautiful, very dark red silk satin and it was barely there. It was backless. At least it was longer than what I might have feared. The skirt had been rolled in tissue paper to keep the silk from wrinkling.

"Eric, what happened to my blue dress? Victor said you were bringing my blue dress? What is this?"

"Pam helped me choose it. We're sure it will fit. I wanted you to look spectacular. I'm showing you off." He smiled.

"Um, it's backless and I don't have the right undergarments for it."

"I'm sure you can figure something out. None might work, for instance." He smiled with amusement at that one. "Actually, there's this special double sided tape that can hold things in place if you need it. Pam said you'd know how to do it. It should be in the bottom of the garment bag."

Damn. There was simply no way to wear a bra with this dress. And I was pretty ample to go without one. But I slipped it on and it did fit, perfectly in fact. It was a little daunting to think that Eric and Pam had spent enough time evaluating my figure to be able to choose a dress that would fit me this way. The plunging back, if you could say there was a back, was fetching. The front had the fabric was layered so not as much showed as you would have thought from looking at it on the hanger. If the layers stayed in place, that is. I started checking out the tape. Easy enough. There was also a wrap in black velvet, which was good because it was already getting chilly this time of year. Looking at the wrap I knew Pam must have chosen it. She loved beading. The shoes seemed to match the color of the dress and of course they were the right size. I looked at myself in the long mirror on the wardrobe door. It looked really pretty in the end, even though it had looked scary on the hanger. I turned and looked at the back. Wow.

I sent Pam a text message telling her it was gorgeous. She wrote back saying I'd look especially great in it after having some of that nice _fairy water_ and that she hoped I wouldn't get it ruined before she could see how it looked on me. I'd had this bad history in fancy dresses for a while… But my luck had changed in recent years.

Eric was rereading Niall's note for about the fifth time.

"I really think you should talk to him, Sookie. Some parts of the story still don't make sense to me. Your grandmother's involvement with Fintan, Fintan's making Niall stay away from her, from all of you. There's definitely more than just what Victor knows. Yes, maybe Naoise killed your parents, but was Niall kept away _before_ they were killed? I can't believe that Niall would have let anything happen to your parents if he'd been free to intervene. I just can't."

I hadn't really thought about that. Niall had mentioned when he first met me that he had met my grandmother and that she was very beautiful. Why had he even met her? And why did my Gran seem to have no hint of any of anything odd in her past, even on those rare occasions when I had looked into her mind, I wondered. Had she been glamoured? Did Fintan even love her? Had he just left and not cared?

"I don't know. That's not an apology, Eric and I told him I wouldn't talk to him unless he did apologize. How do I even know he'll tell me more, or tell the truth about any of it? He might just try to revise what Victor told me, and I know Victor told me the truth."

"He has no reason to hide things from you anymore. You already know the worst of it, about your parents. Although even then, I'd have to say… don't take this the wrong way, okay? I have to say that I think you were safer and happier with your grandmother than you had been with your parents. I just mean based on what you've told me about how they felt about your abilities, and about keeping you away from your uncle. I'm not saying what happened wasn't terrible or sad for you and for Jason. But your life with your grandmother was a good one, Sookie. She really took care of you." He put his hands on either side of my face and looked at me with such gentleness in his eyes. "I'm so sorry, my Love. I'm sorry the truth was so much worse than you expected…"

I sighed. "I just don't want to think about it right now. About them or about Niall. I was stewing on it all day. But I'll talk to him before I go to New York. I guess it's only fair. Pythia will have an absolute field day with it all now that I know. Although Zelda sent me a text message this afternoon saying that Pythia hoped I wasn't too upset. They also know I talked to Mr. Nikolaidis about Victor's contract with Felipe, and they knew we were here at Victor's. I think Pythia will have figured it all out. I really hope Victor starts to take things more seriously. He's going to lose everything if he doesn't."

"His problem, not yours."

"He's my cousin, Eric. He has not had an easy life, even before he was turned. He never had a happy family. I feel for him. I understand."

"Sookie, you need to understand without making excuses for him. And Victor is the ultimate escape artist. I wouldn't worry too much about him. I've seen him get away with things so many times. It's amazing."

"I'm inclined to agree with you on that one…"

Eric was wearing a brand new sapphire blue silk shirt with black leather pants. It looked smashing with his eyes. My heart swelled when I looked at him. I seriously considered grabbing him all over again. But the dress, the tape…

I looked at the dress in the mirror again. "Eric, I look okay in it, don't I?" It really seemed a bit out there when I'd looked at it on the hanger.

He stood behind me and wrapped his arms around me. "You are so beautiful," he whispered in my ear while meeting my eyes in our reflection.

I smiled at his reflection. Eric didn't tell me that I _looked_ beautiful, but that I _was_ beautiful. I was so relieved that he seemed to have forgiven me for the Tray and Amelia business. I don't think I could have taken much more emotional upheaval right then.

He took my hand and we went downstairs. Since the living room was still being renovated, we went toward the library. Floral arrangements were abundant in the foyer, the area around the central staircase, in the library, and even on the sofa table blocking the entrance to the living room. Victor came down stairs with Polly, who was dressed in a violet dress and looking very much like Victor's date, in spite of his dramatic effort to glam her out of such thoughts. Victor smiled at me and he was very pleased with himself. He was dressed in a beautiful suit of dark gray and a rose colored shirt. She didn't have any obvious bite marks, but after looking at the two of them for a minute I knew they were already back together and I knew that she'd had Victor's blood and that he could now feel what I had seen. Polly really genuinely liked and cared about him. And he was delighted.

Victor careened toward me and said in a low voice, filled with delight, "She was realizing she'd forgotten things. She still felt the same way, in spite of the glamour."

I just smiled at him. I knew he really liked the idea that she could resist him a bit. Just then I sniffed the air. There was the oddest scent. It was like something burning, like paper or…

"Do you smell something odd," I asked Eric. He shook his head and looked puzzled. His sense of smell was obviously much better than mine and he didn't sense anything.

The scent intensified and then I got goosebumps all over.

As I entered the library I gasped as I was overwhelmed with a sense of horror. I blinked my eyes and realized I was just someplace else, in my mind. There was blood everywhere and there were pieces of a vampire, or maybe more than one, around. I closed my eyes and just swayed. It was a vision.

"Sookie?" Polly shook my arm….

I couldn't get it to stop, even with my eyes closed. Something bad was going to happen in this room and I couldn't tell if it was tonight, or next week or next year. I felt nauseated. I forced myself to look. I saw the little Thai vamp Jonathan dead on the floor, wearing a mint green silk shirt. It was like it was going back and forth between just before and just after he'd died. What had he said? Hanson? I was confused. There were at least five other dead vampires, maybe more, but I only knew Jonathan. Blood. Blood and ash everywhere. This was what I got for not listening to Eithne. I had no basis for understanding what I was seeing. Were we safe tonight? What _was_ this vision? _When_ was it?

Then Eric had me on the couch in his lap, leaning back against him. He must have picked me up. Mrs. Hodges bent down before me with a cup of a peculiarly scented tea. I felt as if I had been drugged and was trying to mentally shake it off.

Mrs. Hodges pressed the teacup into my hand. "You must drink it."

I sipped the tea and my mind cleared as if windshield wipers were wiping away the rain.

Eric pressed his lips against my ear. "Are you okay?" he whispered.

"Who is Hanson? Do either of you know someone named Hanson?"

Victor spun around and looked at me and I felt Eric sit up more and look toward Victor.

"Jonathan said something about Hanson. I saw…" I didn't exactly want to say what I saw. Part of me still thought that if you act on what you envision perhaps you create that reality. What if it was just one outcome. What I saw was horrible and I wouldn't choose it if there was another way.

"What did you see," asked Victor earnestly. "What did you see about Jonathan and Hanson?"

"I don't know how to interpret what I saw. We need to be careful."

"But _what_ did you see?" he insisted.

Well at the very least, they should be prepared to protect themselves. "I saw… bloodshed."

Eric shifted me onto the couch so I could lean back against the cushions. He rose and walked over to Victor and the two left the room to confer. I pulled my wrap around me. I was cold, very cold. Polly sat down next to me and tried to make small talk.

Twenty minutes later, they came back into the room. Eric had a huge and heavy sword with him that we had seen in Victor's room the night before. It was about four feet long and looked a movie prop version of Excaliber, except it was real and looked quite sharp. I surmised it had been Edward's. Eric raised it and sighted the line of the blade, then swooped it through the air several times and seemed satisfied. Victor meanwhile had two matched and very long Celtic daggers that appeared to be made of silver. He was handling them gingerly from their pommels, which were wrapped in black leather.

Eric looked me over carefully. "How do you feel?" I could see he didn't want to verbalize any concerns about whether I'd had any energy drain from the experience.

"I'm fine now. The tea really helped me." Mrs. Hodges had actually gone off to make a second cup.

Eric nodded. "I know you hate the parlor tricks kind of magic, but do you think you could fix the sword and daggers to the wall so that only Victor and I can remove them?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I should think so. I don't think it would make much difference versus other things like people or fire, right?"

Eric glanced around and said "You're sure it's this room?" looking back at me.

I tried to recapture the image. Yes, there had been the bookshelves. "Yes, it's in here. I saw the shelves. But I don't even know if it's tonight. I saw the dead, but I didn't see any of us and I don't know when or even if it will really happen."

"Better safe than sorry," said Victor soberly.

Eric walked over to a space without shelves and turned to survey the room. Then he placed the sword against the wall and nodded to me. I held it there with my mind. He removed his hands and it was quite easy to keep it suspended. Victor did the same with the daggers, which he crossed over one another. I fixed them that way in my mind, with the idea that only Eric or Victor could remove them.

Polly just stared at me, clearly stunned. She was beginning to see that I was not quite what I seemed. Victor went over to her and put his arm around her. He was trying to decide whether it was better for her to leave or not. She didn't want to go, though. They went off to talk for a while and Mrs. Hodges came back with another cup of tea.

"What is the tea, Mrs. Hodges?" I inquired.

"It's tansy and mint. You should plant tansy at your home." She nodded and left.

Eric sat down but continued to evaluate the room carefully _before_ the fight. I realized that I had last seen him do this was in Sophie-Anne's compound but I hadn't been aware of what he was doing. He finally nodded.

"You and Polly should stay over there," he said pointing to an area to the right of the doorway but not blocking it. You should be able to leave quickly if you have to. You can be looking at books and chatting. Make sure to keep her out of the way. She's very green."

"Eric if you think I'd leave you in this room in a fight you are totally in denial. We're getting one thing straight right now between you and me- you can fight if you want to fight but if there is any serious chance that anything is going to happen to any of us I'm stopping it."

"And you're totally in denial if you think I need your help, Lover. I love a good fight. It's invigorating. And I'm not having you get wiped out by trying anything if you have no privacy when you are recovering. It's not safe."

"I won't need to do anything like that. I can do other things."

"Until you get upset and do things you shouldn't. I'm _always_ the first line of defense. I can fight longer than you'll _ever_ be able to Sookie. In the dark I can fight for hours and hours without rest. Don't worry. If anything happens, just keep yourself and Polly safe."

My mind lingered on the memory of that night in Madison. Eric seemed to sense what I was thinking.

"_That_ wasn't fighting. This is completely different. Remember in my human life I was built for fighting. It's what I'm best at and why I was turned. In the meantime, when you think of the room as you saw it, was it like it is now, not completely finished? When you saw Jonathan, what was he wearing?"

"I don't know about the room. I just could see the bookshelves and books. Jonathan was wearing a mint green silk shirt. It was a different style, like something Thai or Chinese. Eric, who is Hanson?"

He looked at me and smirked. "One of the myriad people Victor has screwed over. Only this one was really probably deserving of it. Victor seems to have borrowed excessively and without permission from him during the 1920's. Hanson was running a whorehouse in New York and would glamour the women working so that they couldn't object. Victor…"

I gasped. "_Victor_ was involved in that?" I was surprised and disgusted.

"No, no. Hanson had other businesses in which Victor dallied. I could say a lot of things against Victor but being abusive that way would not be one of them. Robbing you blind and screwing you over by telling you that someone else did it and then having you kill some of those people and pay the price for it _would be _Victor. Which seems to be the problem here. Now that Victor's high profile, the rats are going to come out of the woodwork. I'm sure this will be a regular occurrence."

I shivered at that thought. "What does Hanson look like?"

"He's Swedish. Turned in his late thirties, so he looks older than most of us. He's about Victor's age. About six feet. Blond hair, blue eyes. Not as good looking as me, of course." He winked at me.

Eric was actually excited about the prospect of getting into a bloody fight. Well, in what I'd seen there was no vampire that looked like Hanson dead. So I guessed that meant he wasn't here in person. Unless he'd been somewhere in the room where I wasn't looking. I hadn't really seen any of us either. I really should have looked around more… It was so grisly I hadn't wanted to look and now it was too late.

Victor came back in with Polly in tow. She wouldn't leave and in a way, I thought it was probably better. If she was going to be in Victor's life for a time, better for her to see things more clearly. Victor walked over to me.

"She won't leave so I'd appreciate it if you keep an eye on her for me."

"Sure, Victor. Did you explain the situation to her?"

He looked at me as if I was nuts. "Explain what? That I have a few enemies? Everyone in my position does."

I stifled a laugh. The doorbell rang.

I scanned the exterior and saw it was Betty Jo Pickard. She was basically Victor's second in command. I hadn't seen her the entire time I'd been here, however. did he even suspect Betty Jo? She was shown into the library. She was in a tuxedo that was cut well for her build. After the pleasantries with us she returned to the foyer, Betty Jo was ready to greet people at the door on behalf of her King. It was 11:45 pm. Soon enough, Jonathan would arrive, and then we'd know.


	10. Chapter 10

**Family**

X.

By 1 am the house was crowded with vampires. At least 20 of them, in addition to our group of four. I held my position near the doorway of the library with Polly, chatting with her. I learned she was one of two children and that her brother was really messed up from service in the war and was currently in a treatment facility. It made me think of Terry. I knew she had gotten a business management degree from UA at Little Rock and was working on an MBA program online. I knew her favorite color was purple, Faith Hill was her favorite singer and that she thought Victor's sense of humor was his best feature. That she'd picked out his suit and the rose colored shirt he was wearing this evening. That she thought Victor had an incredible fashion sense and when she first met him she thought he had to be gay to dress that well. She knew Victor had done something to her memories and she wondered if I knew what he tried to erase (that was a hard one to evade her on). She was sure they had been together for at least seven months but had trouble remembering, so she was sure she had been glamoured. He said he'd make it up to her, but what she really wanted were her memories back. She also pumped me for information about whether vampires really stuck with their humans longer than they did with their made children, because Victor had evidently told her that he had absolutely no intention of making her a vampire when she asked him again. She was sure she'd asked him before but couldn't remember that clearly either. We talked about sire/child bonds and how you sometimes got a bad surprise when you made a vampire or that a sire and child could end up hating each other. I talked to her, without mentioning names, about the Bill and Lorena saga which had played out right in this very compound as example of how wrong the sire/child bond could go.

After a while I felt Eric's interest drawn by Jonathan's entry into the Library. Jonathan was wearing a black jacket, which zipped up high. It was impossible to see what he was wearing underneath it. To my amazement, Mrs. Hodges entered the room and asked various guests if they would like to give her their coats and jackets. Jonathan unzipped but not facing me. I was on pins and needles. He carefully removed the jacket, finally revealing a mint green raw silk shirt. My eyes were huge. Eric glanced at me and then at Victor. My heart was pounding. Eric sent me warm and fuzzies from across the room. Stay calm, Sookie, stay calm.

Although I stayed loosely listening to Polly chatter on, I tried to stealthily feel out Jonathan, who had originally been in Felipe's employ and one of the scouts sent to investigate me when Felipe was taking over Louisiana. When Victor took Mississippi, Jonathan had worked with him and had stayed with Victor. I wasn't sure how that worked, since he had sworn fealty to Felipe. There were certain subtleties to vampire allegiances that I didn't quite get and sometimes, as in the case of Victor, sworn allegiance might mean little. Jonathan had always seemed a relatively innocuous character. In fact I was surprised that Victor had kept him on because Jonathan was small, and not in my estimation particularly skilled, as I remembered his trying to glam me ardently when standing outside near my car after Halleigh and Andy Bellefleur's wedding. That night was the first time I'd seen my grandfather. I reflected on the fact that when Jonathan followed after me, my grandfather had appeared behind him. Niall really had wanted to keep me safe… No matter how upset I was with him, I knew that was the truth.

My cautious forays into Jonathan's mind were slow work. He seemed to be a very odd thinker. Maybe it was a language thing, I couldn't tell. I tried to scope out if he was really on Victor's side and couldn't really get much out of him. It almost seemed as if he liked Victor as in the attracted to him sense. But it was very confused. He seemed very watchful and was also keeping an eye on Eric, which made me think that he was up to something. Eric was the oldest vampire in the house, the biggest, and even though Victor was the King, Eric was the most powerful in the physical sense. If Jonathan was keeping tabs on Eric it was either because Eric was an impediment, or Eric might guarantee safety. I just couldn't tell which was the case. Why would Jonathan be glad that Eric was there to keep us all safe?

About twenty minutes later, it started. A vampire I'd never seen before wheeled around and lunged at Victor with a wooden knife. Victor deftly avoided the wooden blade and spun to grab his silver daggers from the wall and went at his attacker. But then there were three more out of the group who started to move forward. I grabbed Polly and made her stand behind me, bracing her against the wall. She peered around me, straining to see Victor, filled with fear for him. Eric snatched the sword of the wall and dispatched two of the attackers from behind, then surveyed the room to ascertain there were no more with the four. The remaining two were still after Victor and none of the Mississippi vampires appeared to go after them to defend Victor. In a flash Jonathan moved to Victor's side as if to assist him and Victor said something to Eric about these two definitely being Hanson's men. Just as Jonathan queried "Who's Hanson?" he was stabbed with a wooden knife by the second vampire, who was trying to work his way to Victor. Poor Jonathan. He tried to protect Victor. Victor stabbed the vamp who got Jonathan but didn't kill him. This one was going to be alive for questioning. I cringed to think about it. Eric had already taken out the fourth man. Victor looked at the Mississippi vampires around the room. They had not come to his aid. Other than Jonathan, who was already starting to flake, his lone supporter had been the Area 5 sheriff from Louisiana, who was his guest. Betty Jo looked taken aback but hadn't even lifted one of her well-manicured hands to help Victor.

Eric stood with his hands on the sword, which was point down into the carpet. He nodded to Victor and then looked at me and at Polly and gestured that we should leave. I took Polly's hand and went to the kitchen. Mrs. Hodges and I drank tea while trying to keep Polly distracted. I really didn't want to think about what was going on in that room. I had clearly foreseen six dead vampires in my vision and when we left there were only four dead. There were a bunch of rather disloyal Mississippi vamps, and an injured one who was likely not going to be around for very long. After about 45 minutes, Mrs. Hodges informed me that I was wanted in the library and suggested that Polly should stay with her. I was now certain that she had some kind of telepathy thing going with Victor, even if her telepathy wasn't exactly like mine.

I moved quietly across the house and heard… sounds I was not to fond of hearing. I cringed near the doorway to the library and called out for Eric. He came to the doorway. His shirt sleeves were rolled up and he looked like he had been busy.

"We need you to 'interview' a few people."

This did not sound like something I was interested in doing. Was this the pre-torture interview? The post-torture and we really can't quite scope you out yet interview? The last chance before we kill you interview? No, it was the interview that Sookie Northman was _not _going to do.

I shook my head. "I just don't think I can get involved in this, Eric. Whatever you're doing in there, you know that's not me. I can't do this stuff. I'm sorry."

"You're already involved, and you're the one that wanted Victor safe, right? We'll bring them out to you."

I really didn't like this idea. I was sure I couldn't do it.

Eric chose wisely. The first person he pulled out was Betty Jo. It looked like she had been slapped around a bit but she had started healing. It still freaked me out though. She looked at me wide eyed. She was one of the first vamps outside of my Louisiana vampire friends who knew I could read vamp minds. So Betty Jo had been afraid of me since Memphis. I had saved her life in Jackson several years ago but what she remembered of me was that I could plow through her mind and that that I had scared Isaiah of Kentucky within an inch of his dead life and incinerated someone in the supe court in Madison. She was looking at me as if she wondered if she was better off back in that room.

"I didn't have anything to do with it, Sookie. Tell them I didn't have anything to do with it." She was very frightened and I was her one chance.

I touched her forearm gently and looked into her. Her fangs came down at my touch and she met my eyes with her own. Of course, she really hadn't had a thing to do with it. But I was more curious about why she hadn't come to Victor's aid. Was she hoping to take over if Victor was killed? Nope. Betty Jo had come to the conclusion that Victor had quite the reputation for screwing people over and she wasn't sure she was willing to risk herself to save her new King if he'd just throw her under the bus whenever it was convenient. The chickens had finally come home to roost… Victor had done all this work to get this amount of power and now no one trusted him enough to work for him in any serious capacity. The every man for himself attitude was prevailing in Victor's regime. That must have been what Victor was sensing was the big problem all along.

"She's fine," I said to Eric. I gestured her to the other side of the room as if telling her to go stand away from us and _away_ from the library. "Can you please tell Victor I need to talk to him?"

Eric went back into the room and I saw him pick up the charming sword again and it appeared he must be pointing it at a group of people while speaking to Victor.

Victor appeared in the doorway with a vampire who had an improvised bandage over his left hand. Or should I say where his left hand would have been. I felt nauseated just looking at him. Regrowth of appendages was supposed to be very painful.

Victor ignored my reaction and just pointed his dagger at the vampire, who was very young when turned, and looked like he thought his end was near. I guess Victor assumed I would just read this guy for him and tell him whether to kill him or not? The vampire looked rather apprehensive of me.

"I'm not going to hurt you," I said softly, looking him in the eyes.

I didn't even have to touch this one to see what he was thinking. He was thinking that Victor was turning out to be not that much better than Russell. He hadn't moved to do anything because Betty Jo hadn't and he trusted _her _not Victor. There was fealty and then there was trust. Without trust, fealty was just a bunch of words.

"Victor, while I sympathize with your situation, I'm just not going to go reading people one by one so you can find out which ones you want to kill, okay?"

Come to think of it, other than Eric and Victor, I could now only see six vampire minds including Betty Jo, and there had to have been at least another ten who were in the room when Polly and I had left it. I looked at Victor partly not comprehending this. They had killed _fourteen_ vampires in that room? Bloodshed indeed.

Victor returned my gaze as if he knew exactly what I was thinking and there was nothing much wrong with what he'd been doing. "They weren't loyal. With these remaining, we aren't sure. Really, if you can't tell me, I'm thinking I'm getting rid of all of them." He looked over at Betty Jo as if wondering why I had her apart from the others. He gestured to the vampire next to him to go back into the library to Eric. The guy was crazy desperate to get out of the house and out of Mississippi. Victor continued to eye Betty Jo.

I glanced over at Betty Jo. How was she going to be assured that Victor wouldn't do to her what he had pretty much been doing most of his vampire life? And how would he have the loyalty of the remaining Mississippi vamps without Betty Jo stepping up? She'd been here a long time. She might not be my fan, but I knew she was damn good at her job and an asset to Victor's state. But I certainly could give her no reason to believe things might be different with Victor this time. This was an unqualified mess that I wanted absolutely no part of.

In a very low voice I said "Victor, I just can't help you the way you want to be helped. Your reputation has gotten you to this point and I really don't know what to tell you. No one trusts you. Your big personnel problem is because _no one trusts you_. You screw over everyone and they all know it. Now I need to talk to Eric again and I'm _not_ going in that room."

Victor gave me a look like he thought I was just being dramatic, but he went back into the library to get Eric. Eric came out carrying the sword and looked back into the room as I tried to pull him off to the side, near the stairwell. There was blood on the sword. Yuck.

"I don't know what the two of you are doing in there but I'm not getting any further involved. What I will tell you is this- part of Victor's problem with his vampires is Betty Jo. Betty Jo doesn't trust Victor because she's _too well-informed_. She's heard all about Victor's tactics and figures it's not worth it for her to risk herself if he's likely to turn around and do something to her like he's done to everybody else. But if he gets rid of her, he's done with his entire state's crew because they all follow _her_. So he needs to figure out how to turn over a new leaf. And I'm going back to the kitchen because I really don't want any part of this. Did he really kill another ten vampires in there Eric?" I looked up at him. Oh my God. They _both_ did it, I could see. Geez. Eric looked completely unperturbed as if it was all in a days work. He sensed my revulsion.

"They were a risk to his operation, Sookie. They had to go if they weren't willing to stand for him." I could tell he was thinking I was just never going to come to terms with some aspects of the vampire way. He was so right… I was just not a bloodshed and maiming kind of person.

"You know, no one in their right mind will work for him if he doesn't figure out a better way, Eric. He's going to have to start turning people just to have the manpower to run this state if he continues on this path. He can't just kill everyone because he suspects them. It's immoral. It's _disgusting_." The sad fact was, though, that as King of his state, he could whatever he wanted with those serving him. I turned away without waiting for a reply, grabbed Betty Jo, and went back to the kitchen.

Polly looked at me walk in with Betty Jo and she thought about going back to Victor.

"Don't. Just don't. It's really ugly in there and it will just upset you. Just.. stay here."

Polly now looked at me as if she was finally seeing, maybe because of Victor's blood, that there was something _really_ different about me. She could see I'd read her thoughts and all that stuff with pinning things to the wall. I was nice, but what the hell was I? And she still didn't want to believe my reply to her.

"What's so bad?"

"Um, let's just say there's been some attrition in the Mississippi ranks."

"Why?"

"It seems there were some concerns about loyalty."

"Well then _good_. Victor should kill them, any of the ones who didn't help him. They deserve it if they won't stand up for him," she said with a classic Little Rock accent.

In addition to the fact that one of those that didn't come to his aid was sitting right next to me, I was rather amazed that Polly thought it was fine to just start killing people because they didn't step up. Maybe she really _was_ Victor's ideal partner. My own thoughts were I in her shoes would have been along the lines of 'there but for the grace of God go I….' But hey, that's just me. I glanced next to me, at Betty Jo, who was sitting as if she was constrained in silver.

"So what do you want to do Betty Jo? Stay, go?"

"I've lived here for over a hundred years. But I just don't know if I can stay." She glanced over at me with one of those vampire cool assessment looks. "He told me he kept me because of you. That otherwise he would have killed me. Is that true?"

I hesitated. "I told him once I knew that he was planning the takeover that if he did anything disgusting to you that I wouldn't forgive him for it. You know, a la Pam." She shuddered as I said that. "No- Victor isn't a cruel person, Betty Jo. But he definitely had… a reputation made for himself by the time he got to this point. The fact is that he needs a loyal second desperately. He can import people but that's the luck of the draw. You know the state, you know the operations. You should have a position of advantage. You need to play it right. It's possible to stay but look after your own interests as well. You could build it into an agreement or something."

Eric and Victor came into the kitchen, with their respective sword and daggers and looked at Betty Jo. At least they'd cleaned the blades, I thought to myself. I looked up at them with narrowed eyes and scowled. "She's trying to decide whether she's staying or leaving and you had both better let her decide."

I looked at Eric. Had he and Victor killed the remaining five? No, it looked as if they were letting them go and they were cleaning up in the room.

Victor nodded in Betty Jo's direction, "She doesn't have anything to decide. She's been demoted. I'm putting her in charge of Hattiesburg and the south of the state. You're Sheriff of Area 2, Betty Jo. Either take it, or leave it. If you leave it, you're leaving the state and not coming back."

Betty Jo looked at him as if she wasn't sure he meant it. But he did. He had just forged a deal by phone with Michael Cheney, the second to the Sherrif in Baton Rouge, to leave Felipe's service in Baton Rouge and come to Mississippi. Cheney would take Area 3, the north part of Mississippi, as Sheriff. Victor would run Area 1 and several riverboat casinos himself. Betty Jo would run the south, an area which included casinos in Biloxi, Gulfport and Tunica. I'd had my suspicions that Victor was getting into human owned casino businesses and slowly taking things over. He knew the gaming industry well from his years in Las Vegas with Felipe. If memory served many of the casinos in Mississippi were owned by Harrah's, which led right back to Nevada. Harrah's was privately owned now. Victor probably had connections within Harrah's upper management. He was, no doubt, a man with a plan and this weekend had just been a bump on the road.


	11. Chapter 11

**Family**

XI.

When I went up to the room at 5:00 am, I was startled to find a package in the middle of the bed. It was a gift box sort of thing, minus the bow. I was apprehensive. Frankly, I was feeling like I really couldn't take much more excitement for the weekend. With the revelations about my family, visions of bloodshed made real and the like, I was pretty much overflowing. After getting undressed and into my nightgown, I sat down on the bed and pulled the box toward me. It felt… magical. Some significant healing energy went into this package, so I was willing to open it. I lifted the lid cautiously and found a note on top handwritten in a lovely cursive handwriting:

_Sookie,_

_We hope that you will visit all of us in the early Spring._

_Eithne and Saoirse_

I was puzzled. What were Eithne and her sister up to?

Underneath the note were several letters in envelopes and a black and white photograph. The photo showed a very pretty young woman, sitting down in a yard with rough grasses and some hedgerows in back. She wore a gingham dress with a ruffled collar and a pearl necklace. She was holding a cat gently, so that it could be photographed along with her. Her face was beautiful and heart-shaped and somehow so familiar. I lingered looking at the photo and the tender expression on the face as she looked at the photographer. I turned it over and saw the initials AHS, and a date, 1951. I gasped and turned back to look at the photograph. AHS, Adele Hale Stackhouse. 1951. The year of my aunt Linda's birth. This was a photo of my Gran, one that I had never seen before.

I looked at the two envelopes contained within the box. One was a familiar stationery in heavyweight buff paper. I turned it over to see the wax seal with a unicorn.

The other was of a fine parchment, light as silk. It was addressed to Sookie Stackhouse but I didn't recognize the handwriting. It was unsealed. I opened this one first. The writing looked as if it had been written with an unsteady hand.

* * *

_Dear Miss Stackhouse,_

_I am writing you to tell you what I would have done long ago. That I am sorry for the pain I have caused you, and your brother, in the loss of your parents. If you are reading this letter, you know something of the tragic history in our family. For quite sometime, I was unwell and behaved not just badly, but cruelly, to some of our family. I was seized with a kind of madness from grief. There is simply no excuse for the harm that I caused. I very much regret things that I have done, things which brought harm to those uninvolved in the problems of our family. I hope one day to meet you to tell you as much in person._

_Naoise__ Brigant_

_23 Cran Dáire Brea_

_Slane, County Meath_

* * *

My eyes filled with tears. The note was so brief, but it was heartfelt. It was as if some of his feelings had been literally impregnated into the paper with magic. By touching it, I could feel that he was truly was sorry. It didn't change things, but at least he was genuinely sorry for what he had done. I had the impression that he had written it before it was even required. Perhaps several years ago even, in case he passed away or something. In reading it I felt for certain that he wanted to be sure that I knew of his remorse, even if he was gone. But he was still alive. I could feel it from the paper. I read it several times over and then carefully folded it and placed it back in its envelope. After glancing at the lovely photo of Gran again, I sighed and opened the letter from Niall, addressed simply _Sookie_. It was several pages long. He did not call me a 'child' in his salutation.

* * *

_My Dearest Sookie,_

_After reflecting on many things, including the insufficiency of my previous letter, I wanted to write to you to apologize properly, in the hopes that we can once again start afresh in our relationship. The photograph that you see enclosed is of your grandmother, the year after your father was born and about six months before your aunt was born. As I told you when I first met you, Adele was very beautiful. Fintan was simply unable to resist her. Her second pregnancy was a cause for concern because of its potential for complicating Adele's marriage to her husband. Her sorrow and confusion over her relationship with Fintan simply cannot be expressed. He vowed to leave her alone, however her severe depression after your aunt's birth led me to the difficult decision to use a kind of glamour to remove her memories of Fintan. Unfortunately, my decision, which was based in the wish to help Adele and protect my grandchildren, spelled the end of my relationship with my son. Fintan extracted from me my word that I would never again contact Adele and that I would seek no contact with his descendants while he lived. Fintan and I never met, or spoke, again. I watched your lives from afar and could not intervene when the tragedies of our family's past exploded into your present. The little I know of Fintan's deep sorrow over your father and mother's deaths cannot be conveyed to you. Fintan watched over you, your brother and Hadley for as long as he could. He was incapacitated for the last ten years of his life, and sadly much seems to have gone awry in your, and especially Hadley's, life during that period of time. Adele's murder was the end for Fintan. He declined rapidly thereafter. The photograph I enclose was among his few possessions._

_I know you may never come to accept my reasons for trying to shield you from the dark history of our family. It has been said that the Fae are a ferocious race. Our family has certainly borne out that description. There was no way that I could explain Fintan's preventing my contacting you without telling you of the errors in judgment, the violence and the sad heritage with which our family was plagued. Perhaps since many of these were my own fault, it was too easy to make excuses and not reveal the information to you._

_Eithne and Saoirse will have included a letter from Naoise__ along with mine. He and I have tried to make our peace, as much as we are able to, with one another. We have both outlived our sons, and lost much more in the process. If you can bring yourself to see him, I know it would mean much to him._

_I hope, as before, that you will find it in your gentle heart to forgive me.__ I will always be heartened to hear your voice and to see your kind face, which is so much like your grandmother's._

_Your Great-Grandfather,_

_Niall Brigant_

_

* * *

  
_

It simply took my breath away.


	12. Chapter 12

**Family**

XII.

We were lying in bed and my head rested on Eric's shoulder as he read Niall's letter for a second time and then looked at the photo again.

"You have her eyes. You do look like her, he's right."

"She was so good to me. I still miss her every day. She really accepted me. You were right. She kept me safe."

"Can you forgive Niall, Sookie?"

"I guess I have to. He tried to take care of Gran, even against Fintan's wishes, when Gran was so unhappy. He did the moral thing to do. He didn't interfere with my marrying you. He did try to take care of me by having Claudine look out for me and he brought me to Eithne. He's definitely tried to protect me. He's made mistakes, without question. But I know in my heart it was never his intent to harm me. I know it was very hard for him to apologize. And now he'll help Victor, which is important to me. He gave me his word. Clearly he keeps his word." Tears ran down my face as I spoke.

"You know, Victor is totally awed by you at this point, Sookie. He seems incredulous that you were willing to argue with Niall to protect him, let alone get him out of the financial situation with Felipe. I think he may actually pay Felipe what he owes from now on, just to keep your affection."

"**_Good_**."

Eric laughed.

I kept thinking about Niall and why he had even bothered to get involved in my life. Some eighth fae telepathic girl with her vampire friends and lover. Why even bother?

"Eric, why do you think that Niall even wanted to meet me? He didn't want to meet Jason, he just wanted to meet me. Why, do you think? I don't understand his interest. He said before Memphis that he didn't even think I was magical. So why me? It wasn't just that I was family. Why not Jason too?"

Eric chuckled. "That's easy, Sookie. He had observed you for a while and listened to what Claudine thought. She may tease you but Claudine thinks the world of you. First, you would accept him, unlike Jason, without wanting unreasonable things. The things you ask of him are almost always for others. Second, you could offer him love. Unlike just about everybody else in his family, you love _kindly_. You have a genuinely kind and loving heart. It's probably why Fintan still loved Adele. Why he was drawn to her in the first place. Beauty is easy to find. Love is not. It's the rarest magic and it just flows from you. It's why we all are drawn to you. Anyone close to you can feel it. Niall couldn't resist it. Why would he want to? There's been precious little of it in his family."

So I was kind and loving? Be that as it may, I was mindful of the fact that Niall had been willing to drop Victor faster than a hot coal. It gave me pause. Had Victor been any different from me when he was nineteen I wondered? Perhaps Niall had changed. I didnt know what to make of it.


	13. Chapter 13

**Family**

XIII.

We were headed back to Shreveport a little after 9 pm. Eric was suffering in the passenger seat of my Prius, which was clearly not designed with Viking height in mind. But mostly he lamented the fact that I seemed unwilling to let him drive my brand new car back home. When he'd asked I'd had visions of his weaving in and out of traffic on I-20 at about 90 mph and thought, no, thank you. We tried practicing my German and he commented that he really thought I was improving. Eric had been telling me for weeks that I should go back to LSU or continue my classes online. He'd gotten all my classes dropped the previous year when I left for Ireland in early October. I could go back without any problem. I was thinking about it but my work schedule seemed to make it difficult. But maybe…

I wondered if anyone offered Irish Gaelic classes in Louisiana. Before we left, Victor had offered to speak Gaeilge, Irish Gaelic, with me by phone, and even write to me in Gaeilge, so that I could surprise Eithne with my progress. He made of big deal of out Irish Gaelic being different from Scottish Gaelic. Sadly, he was teaching me mostly curses at present, however. His favorite for me to learn so far was _Loscadh is dó ort!_ which, roughly translated, threatens scorching and burning. It was just a perfect one for _me_ to use, he said with a chuckle. The other ones he'd taught me were really, really bad. Although the funniest one, which made Mrs. Hodges laugh, was translated 'may the cat eat you, and then may the devil eat the cat'. I drew the line when he started using certain phrases to describe my husband, however. Eric caught him at it and said something in Old Norse that I was sure was very, very vulgar from the look of enjoyment he had in saying it to Victor.

Mrs. Hodges had insisted that I had to have dinner before leaving. She'd roasted chicken breasts, with vegetables from the garden. Polly and I sat chatting over dinner while Victor, Eric and Betty Jo talked nearby. Betty Jo was bringing in a couple of vamps from Memphis who could fill in the ranks for Victor until he had found replacements for a number of the vamps who had been 'removed'. Betty Jo might be a Sheriff but she was still really his second from what I could see. She seemed as if, apprehensively, she would be giving it a real try. Michael Cheney was arriving tonight, I overheard.

As I'd finished my wine, my thoughts returned to the people I knew in Bon Temps who had seen me that week I helped out in Merlotte's. That sometimes you don't want to see what's right in front of you because it's just easier not to. Victor might be my part fae cousin, but he was _definitely _a vampire. Fourteen vampires had been killed in his library for being assassins or for just not being loyal enough to his regime. As far as I was concerned, the bloodshed I'd seen in my vision was probably less from the attack than from its aftermath. It was The Takeover, Part Two, or 'cleaning house', as Victor called it. I'd call it a bloodbath. It was hard to pair the image of the person capable of such things with a love of _gardening_. I wondered if Victor's bad reputation would shift to just being ruthless rather than being the kind of person who'd sell you out at the drop of a hat. It might actually keep him safer if that was the case. Well, if I could overlook some of Eric's inherent violence, I should certainly do the same for my cousin, I told myself. Really I didn't have much choice. And the Fae aren't much better anyway, I told myself.

I hugged Mrs. Hodges goodbye and she smiled up at me as she took my hand warmly. I had the sense that she was a curious blend of power and loyalty, bound by choice to Victor's service. I had come to see that she was part of keeping him safe. He had made so many enemies on his route to this stately house. Uneasy rests the head that wears a crown, as they say. Part of me thought that Victor's sense of the risks in his operation had really been Mrs. Hodges' perceptions. She was a loyal caregiver for Edward's 'child'. He was lucky to have her. I knew she would not return to England.

I hugged Polly goodbye and she told me that she would keep in touch with me. Then Victor gave me a long hug, pressing his cool cheek against mine. Although he said, audibly "Thank you so much, for _everything_, Sookie," what he beamed me with all his heart was his love. After centuries of feeling like the Brigant black sheep, my love and friendship with him had finally made him feel like he truly did have family again. It meant so very much to him, but it was far beyond his ability to put any of it into words. The look in his eyes said more than enough.

I thought about Bill and his unlikely attachment to the Bellefleurs. Sometimes you cling to family even when it doesn't want you. Maybe if you held on long enough, just like Victor had, it eventually would want you. I thought back to that night in Memphis when Victor and I had danced together and he said I was a friend worth having. He'd already known then that I was his family and he'd chosen family over vampires and even over his own benefit that night. He so easily could have parlayed his knowledge of my staking Rasul into personal advantage or blackmail. It would have been force of habit, really. Eric had discounted the significance of it, but now I could see just how much of his bitterness Victor was able to set aside for the hope of family. Could I be any less forgiving than that?

When I got home, I knew that I'd call Niall and tell him I forgave him and that I loved him for all the care he tried to take of me, even though some of it was very seriously misguided care. I knew that I would visit Naoise when I was next in Ireland and try to be forgiving even if it was very, very hard. I'd tell Claudine and even Claude that I could never thank them enough for all the love and kindness they had shown me. I'd call Victor every week and tell him I hoped he remembered his promises to me and laugh at his Gaeilge curses. I would try as hard as I could to love Jason as he is and think of how much like Fintan he probably was. And I'd gather Eric and Pam close to my heart as my beloved chosen family.

Family could hurt you grievously. Family could heal you. I still felt I was quite lucky to have family, imperfections and all.


End file.
